A  SHORT  UFPOF 

ABRAHAM 


RALPH  iHlRLlY 


« 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


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A   SHORT   LIFE   OF 

ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


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A  SHORT  LIFE  OF 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


BY  THE  HON. 

RALPH  SHIRLEY 

AUTHOR   OF  "THE   NEW   GOD,  AND   OTHER   ESSAYS," 
"PROPHECIES  AND  OMENS  OF  THE  GREAT  WAR,"ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED  AMERICAN  EDITION 


"Only  the  actions  of  the  just 
Smell  sweet  and  blossom  in  the  dust" 


FUNK  &.  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

NEW    YORK 

1919 


Copyright,  1919,  by 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

(Printed  in  the  United  States  o£  America) 

Copyright  Under  the  Articles  of  the  Copyright  Convention 

of  the  Pan-American  Republics  and  the 

United  States,  August,  11,  1910 

Published  March,  1919 


vr> 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

^                    Publisher's  Note  to  the  American  Edition     .  9 

I.        Childhood  and  Youth 13 

II.'      Early  Struggles 26 

III.  Love  Affairs  and  Marriage 36 

IV.  Legal  Practise — Lincoln  as  Member  op  Con- 

gress        47 

V.  The  Republican  Party 58 

VI.  From  Prairie  Politician  to  President      ...  80 

VII.  The  Rights  and  Wrongs  of  the  War  ....  92 

VIII.  The  Gathering  Storm 100 

IX.  Lincoln  and  His  Cabinet 110 

X.  The  War 121 

XI.  Negro  Emancipation — the  Turn  of  the  Tide    .  133 

XII.  Lincoln  Reelected  President 157 

Xm.  The  End .169 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Statues  of  Lincoln  in  England Frontispiece 

On  the  right,  Augustus  Saint-Gaudens's  Chicago 
work,  a  replica  of  which  goes  to  London;  on 
the  left,  George  Grey  Barnard's  statue,  which, 
after  a  long  controversy,  was  accepted  by 
Manchester. 

Memorial  Erected  in  Recent  Years  Over  Lin- 
coln's Birthplace  at  Hodgensville,  Ky.,   Faces  page 

Lincoln's  Birthplace  at  Hodgensville,  Ky.    .     "      " 

Lincoln's  Home  in  Springfield,  III "      *' 

Lincoln  at  the  Time  of  His  First  Nomination 

FOR  President   ....         «      u 

A  bust  in  Grecian  marble,  by  Gutzon  Borglum, 
owned  by  Col.  Samuel  P.  Colt. 

The  White  House  in  Civil  War  TniEs   ..." 


The  Capitol  When  Lincoln  Was  a  Member  op 

Congress  (1847-49) •     •     • 

When  Lincoln  became  President,  the  wings  now 
occupied  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives had  recently  been  completed,  but 
the  dome,  as  it  now  is,  was  under  construction. 

Lincoln  and  His  Family,  a  War-time  Picture 
Lincoln  had  four  sons,  only  one  of  whom,  Robert 
Todd  Lincoln,  reached  maturity.  Robert 
Todd  Lincoln,  who  is  seen  standing  near  the 
center  of  the  picture,  many  years  afterwards 
went  to  London  as  the  American  minister,  and 
is  still  living  (1919).  The  other  boy  in  the 
picture  is  the  one  known  as  "Tad."  When 
an  infant,  his  father  had  called  him  "Tad- 
pole," which  was  afterwards  changed  to 
"Tad."  His  real  name  was  Thomas.  "Tad" 
survived  his  father,  d\'ing  at  19  years  of  age 
in  1872.  Another  son,  "Willie,"  died  while 
his  father  was  President — in  1862.  The 
fourth  son  was  Edward  Baker  who  died  in 
lUinois  in  infancy. 


<( 


it 


it 


<( 


20 
20 
48 

90 

102 

102 


"    126 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Lincoln  and  His  Cabinet  as  Assembled  in  1862 
TO  Hear  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 

Read Faces  page  136 

Left  to  right  (sitting) — Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secre- 
tary of  War;  Abraham  Lincohi,  President; 
Gideon  Welles,  Secretary  of  the  Navy;  Wil- 
liam H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State;  Edward 
Bates,  Attorney-General. 
Left  to  right  (standing) — Salmon  P.  Chase,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury;  Caleb  Smith,  Secretary 
of  the  Interior;  Montgomery  Blair,  Postmas- 
ter-General. 

General  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  a  War-Time  Por- 
trait      "     "146 


PUBLISHER'S  NOTE  TO  THE  AMERICAN 

EDITION 

The  arrangements  undertaken  during  the  progress  of 
the  war,  to  set  up  in  London  a  statue  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  gave  special  emphasis,  among  British  people, 
to  certain  points  in  this  war  that  were  analogous  to 
others  in  our  Civil  War.  Not  only  was  this  observed 
in  military  problems  that  arose,  but  in  the  moral  side 
of  the  issue  itself,  as  understood  by  the  Entente  Allies, 
the  war  for  them  being  a  struggle  to  preserve  what 
Lincoln  called  "government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  for  the  people."  Instead,  however,  of  one 
statue  of  Lincoln  being  set  up  in  England,  it  was 
promised,  as  the  result  of  an  acrimonious  controversy, 
that  two  would  be — George  Grey  Barnard's  in  Man- 
chester, and  a  repUca  of  Augustus  Saint-Gaudens' 
Chicago  work  going  to  London.  With  the  war  ended, 
Lincoln's  achievement  was  again  recalled  in  connection 
with  the  terms  of  peace  to  be  made  with  the  Central 
Powers,  which,  it  was  contended,  should  follow  Lin- 
coln's example  in  his  peace  deaHngs  with  the  South — 

that  is,  the  terms  should  be  such  as  to  secure  for  the 

9 


10  PUBLISHER'S   NOTE 

Entente  the  essential  purposes  for  which  their  armies 
had  fought. 

Conditions  such  as  these  inevitably  gave  rise  to  keen 
European  interest  in  Lincoln's  life,  to  writings  about 
him  in  periodicals,  to  much  conversation  among  in- 
dividuals, with  one  notable  English  biography  of  him, 
the  first  ever  written  by  an  Englishman-  —Lord  Cham- 
wood's  large  volume  in  the  ''Makers  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century  Series/'  A  notable  book  was  Lord  Cham- 
wood's,  much  read  in  this  country  for  two  years  past, 
and  called  for  in  more  than  one  edition  soon  after  its 
publication.  Readers  were  much  imprest,  not  only 
by  the  author's  grasp  of  his  theme  and  his  Hterary 
gifts,  but  by  his  breadth  of  view,  his  comprehension 
of  the  real  things  at  issue  in  the  American  Civil  War. 
Not  a  few  readers  saw  in  it  qualities  that  reminded 
them  of  Sir  George  Otto  Trevelyan's  "The  American 
Revolution,"  which  to  many  had  been  found  the  most 
satisfying  of  all  works  on  the  subject. 

The  interest  taken  on  this  side  of  the  water  in  the 
Charnwood  and  Trevelyan  books — not  to  mention  the 
interest  taken  during  almost  thirty  years  in  Lord 
Bryce's  classic  treatise  on  our  institutions,  ''The 
American  Commonwealth" — has  led  the  pubHshers 
who  now  bring  out  an  American  edition  of  the  Hon. 
Ralph  Shirley's  "A  Short  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln," 
to  believe  that  Americans  will  be  interested  in  it,  not 
less  for  its  intrinsic  merits  than  as  the  work  of  an 
Englishman.    Mr.  Shirley  has  endeavored  to  give,  in 


PUBLISHER'S   NOTE  11 

as  concise  form  as  possible,  the  essential  details  of 
Lincoln's  early  life  of  penury  and  small  local  successes 
in  the  Middle  West,  as  well  as  the  master  part  he 
played  in  middle  Hfe  in  the  preservation  of  the  Union 
and  the  suppression  of  slavery.  Mr.  Shirley  has  gone 
to  accepted  sources  for  his  facts,  and,  while  writing 
to  the  level  of  the  mind  already  informed,  has  kept 
more  especially  before  him  the  mind  that  is  relatively 
uninformed  as  to  Lincoln.  This  meant  the  employ- 
ment of  simple  language  and  only  such  details  as  were 
necessary  to  a  real  and  speedy  comprehension  of  the 
tasks  Lincoln  took  up  as  President,  and  the  manner  in 
which  he  performed  them,  in  achieving  for  his  country 
and  the  world  at  large  such  great  and  enduring  results. 

New  Yoek,  March  1, 1919. 


A  SHORT  LIFE  OF 

ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

Chapter  I 

CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH 

Of  the  world^s  great  men,  surely  the  greatest  are  those 
who  have  made  history;  that  is  to  say,  those  who,  by 
their  personal  action,  have  turned  the  current  of  events 
in  such  a  manner  that  the  subsequent  history  of  the 
world  has  been  radically  changed  by  their  intervention 
in  the  course  of  affairs.  Among  such  men  we  may 
name  without  hesitation  Alexander  the  Great,  Napo- 
leon, and  in  our  own  times  Otto  von  Bismarck.  Owing 
to  the  individual  action  of  each  of  these  three  men, 
who  may  be  selected  as  typical  instances,  the  current 
of  history  was  radically  altered  from  what  it  would 
have  been  if  they  had  played  no  prominent  part  in  the 
shaping  of  events.  As  a  rule,  the  modern  statesman, 
however  notable  his  achievements,  can  hardly  claim  a 
place  among  such  molders  of  history.    To  name  one 

of  the  most  eminent,  Gladstone  was  always  an  op- 

13 


14  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

portunist,  and  even  in  the  case  of  his  championship 
of  Home  Rule  he  was  driven  to  the  position  he  adopted 
by  the  force  of  circumstances. 

Can  we  place  the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the 
first  category?  It  is  doubtful  if  any  unanimous  agree- 
ment could  be  arrived  at  on  this  point,  but  a  careful 
survey  of  the  events  of  his  time  will,  I  think,  lead  us 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  substitution  of  some  other 
President  of  the  United  States  at  the  critical  moment 
would  have  resulted  in  a  very  different  solution  of  the 
grave  problem  which  confronted  America,  from  that 
which  actually  eventuated.  The  desire  to  find  a  way 
out  of  the  difficulty  which  should  at  all  costs  avoid 
the  horrors  of  civil  war  was  strong  on  both  sides,  and 
overwhelmingly  so  in  the  case  of  the  North.  The 
majority  of  the  politicians  of  that  time  were  eager, 
probably  over-eager,  for  compromise;  and  extremists, 
such  as  the  whole-hearted  AboHtionists,  were  not 
merely  scouted  in  the  South,  but  cold-shouldered  and 
looked  upon  with  the  gravest  disfavor  by  many  in 
the  North.  There  was,  indeed,  in  the  North  the 
strongest  feeling  against  any  disruption  of  the  Union, 
but  there  were  vast  numbers  who  were  prepared  to 
sacrifice  even  this,  should  such  a  step  prove  to  be  the 
only  manner  of  avoiding  internecine  strife.  There  was, 
again,  a  very  large  body  of  opinion  which,  while  greatly 
averse  to  any  extension  of  slavery  within  the  borders 
of  the  States,  was  yet  prepared  to  make  concessions 
even  on  what  was  with  it  a  question  of  principle, 


CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  15 

rather  than  ahenate  the  Southern  States.  Concessions 
in  this  direction  had  abeady  been  made  to  the  South 
beyond  what  might  have  been  considered  justifiable, 
notably  in  the  case  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise, and  it  seemed  probable  that  further  pressure 
by  the  slave-owning  communities  might  lead  in  the 
final  issue  to  further  concession  still.  That  a  firm  stand 
was  made  on  this  question  of  no  further  concession  to 
slavery  was  due,  we  may  say  almost  entirely,  to  the 
attitude  taken  up  by  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  it  was  the 
adoption  of  this  firm  stand  which  led  to  the  war  between 
North  and  South,  with  all  that  it  eventually  entailed. 
There  are  few  to-day  who  would  hesitate  to  afiirm 
that  Lincoln  was  justified  in  the  attitude  which  he 
took  up.  There  remains,  however,  the  strong  proba- 
bility that,  had  he  been  absent  from  the  helm,  com- 
promise might  have  held  the  day.  If  this  is  the  true 
view  to  take,  clearly  Lincoln  must  be  classed  among 
those  men  who  by  their  personal  action  have  molded 
history.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  many  have  dehghted 
to  point  to  the  nomination  of  Lincoln  to  the  Presidency 
as  evidence  of  the  intervention  of  Providence  in  human 
affairs.  For,  taking  the  view  that,  apart  from  his 
election,  the  cause  of  slavery  w^ould  in  aU  probability 
have  triumphed,  they  are  able  to  show  that  to  all 
appearance  this  election  was  due  to  fortuitous  circum- 
stances rather  than  to  any  great  movement  of  the 
majority  of  the  American  people  to  summon  him  to  the 
first  position  in  the  great  Republic  as  the  man  of  their 


16  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

choice.  Providence,  these  people  will  tell  us,  stept 
in  and  so  molded  events  that  the  one  man  who  could 
save  the  situation  was  chosen  President.  As  William 
Eleroy  Curtis^  remarks: — 

"When  Mr.  Lincoln  was  nominated  for  the  Presidency 
he  was  un  unknown  man.  He  had  occupied  no  important 
position.  He  had  rendered  no  great  pubHc  service.  His 
reputation  was  that  of  a  debater  and  pohtician,  and  did  not 
become  national  until  he  dehvered  a  remarkable  speech  at 
the  Cooper  Union,  New  York.  His  election  was  not  due 
to  personal  popularity,  nor  to  the  strength  of  the  party  he 
represented,  nor  to  the  justice  of  his  cause,  but  to  factional 
strife  and  jealousies  among  his  opponents." 

In  following  out  the  life-history  of  this  remarkable 
man,  I  think  we  shall  be  able  to  reaHze  that  the  position 
which  Lincoln  won  was  due  more  to  his  personal 
quaUfications,  diplomatic  talents,  and  poHtical  fore- 
sight than  is  generally  appreciated;  but  a  cursory 
view  of  the  situation  gives  a  very  plausible  appearance 
to  the  arguments  advanced  by  those  who  would  see  in 
this  appointment  definite  evidence  of  the  overruling 
of  the  Divine  Hand.  At  least  the  position  taken  up 
is  a  tacit  admission  how  much  in  the  actual  course  of 
events  must  be  acknowledged  to  be  due  to  Lincoln's 
personal  character  and  individual  action. 

The  greatest  appeal  to  the  imagination  is  ever  made 
by  those  men  who  have  risen  from  the  humblest  situa- 


^  In  his  book,  "The  True  Abraham  Lincoln,"  p.  14. 


CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  17 

tion  in  life  to  the  highest  pinnacle  of  fame.  Lincoln's 
career  was  a  case  in  point.  When  asked  by  the  re- 
porters after  his  election  to  the  Presidency  to  give 
some  account  of  his  early  life,  he  observed  that  all 
that  he  could  say  was  comprised  in  the  well-known 
line  of  Gray's  Elegy: — 

"The  short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor." 

The  reporters  doubtless  went  away  dissatisfied  and 
his  biographers  have  been  far  from  willing  to  accept  this 
brief  description  of  his  early  Hfe  as  a  sufficient  account 
of  the  upbringing  and  youthful  adventures  of  their 
hero.  As  is  usual  in  such  cases,  every  channel  of 
information  has  been  ransacked  and  Lincoln's  early 
associates  appealed  to  for  reminiscences  and  records. 
The  result  is  that  we  are  able  to  furnish  a  fairly  full 
and  graphic  account  of  the  conditions  under  which 
Lincoln  came  into  the  world,  and  in  which  he  grew  up 
to  manhood.  These  were  far  from  affording  favorable 
opportunities,  in  view  of  his  future  destiny. 

Though  his  family  figured  among  the  earhest  settlers 
in  the  New  England  States,  and  some  of  them  had 
risen  to  position  and  prosperity,  Lincoln  owed  nothing 
to  family  connections.  His  parents  were  miserably 
poor,  and  his  father  was  one  of  those  people  who  always, 
somehow,  managed  to  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door 
without  being  successful  in  ever  shutting  out  from 
his  conditions  the  proximate  menace  which  the  old 
adage   imphes.     Samuel   Lincoln,   the    progenitor    of 


18  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Abraham  Lincoln,  appears  to  have  emigrated  from  the 
west  of  England  some  years  subsequently  to  the  landing 
of  the  Pilgrim  Fathere,  and  to  have  settled  at  a  village 
called  Hingham  on  the  south  shore  of  Massachusetts 
Bay.  Among  the  descendants  of  this  Samuel  was  one 
John,  who  became  prominent  in  public  life  and  was 
a  member  of  the  Convention  that  framed  the  first 
constitution  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  John's  third 
son  was  named  Abraham.  His  father  presented  him 
with  a  farm  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  he  married 
one  Anna  Boone,  a  cousin  of  Daniel  Boone,  a  famous 
American  pioneer,  and  by  her  had  three  sons.  It 
happened  that  while  at  work  upon  his  farm  Abraham 
and  his  sons  were  attacked  by  a  squad  of  Indians. 
The  father  was  shot  on  the  spot;  the  elder  brother  ran 
for  a  rifle  and,  coming  back,  shot  his  father's  assailant. 
In  the  meantime  Josiah,  the  second  son,  had  gone  to 
the  neighbors  for  assistance,  and  the  Indians  took  to 
flight  without  doing  further  damage. 

Of  these  three  brothers,  the  youngest,  Thomas,  then 
a  child  of  six,  was  the  father  of  the  future  President. 
It  is  suggested  that  the  mother,  Anna,  was  a  poor 
manager.  Anyhow,  she  abandoned  the  farm  in  Jeffer- 
son County.  Eventually  the  eldest  son,  Mordecai, 
inherited  the  bulk  of  his  father's  property,  and  sub- 
sequently became  sheriff  of  Washington  County  and  a 
member  of  the  Kentucky  Legislature.  Misfortune 
dogged  Thomas's  footsteps  from  his  earhest  years. 
For  some  unknown  reason  he  seems  to  have  been  left 


CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  19 

to  shift  for  himself,  and  at  ten  years  of  age  is  met 
with  as  a  wandering  laboring  boy  who  supported 
himself  by  farm  work  and  other  such  employment,  and 
subsequently  learned  the  trade  of  carpenter  and  cabinet- 
maker. He  is  stated  to  have  been  a  powerfully  built 
man,  and,  Uke  his  son,  had  a  wide  local  reputation  as  a 
wrestler.  While  learning  his  trade  of  carpenter  in  the 
shop  of  Joseph  Hanks,  Thomas  Lincoln  fell  in  love 
with  and  married  Nancy  Hanks,  the  niece  of  his 
employer. 

Nancy  Hanks  was  the  youngest  of  eight  children, 
and  brought  nothing  to  improve  Thomas  Lincoln's 
financial  position.  She  is,  however,  represented  as 
being  a  woman  of  a  sweet  temper  and  handsome  ap- 
pearance, and  of  intelligence  and  character  superior 
to  her  position.  Thomas  Lincoln  in  the  first  instance 
took  his  wife  to  a  log  cabin  in  a  village  called  Ehzabeth 
Town,  where  he  practised  his  trade  as  carpenter;  but 
two  years  later  he  abandoned  carpentering  and  moved 
to  Hodgensville  on  Nolan  Creek,  where  he  took  up 
farming  as  his  means  of  livelihood.  Here,  in  a  one- 
room  cabin  with  a  single  window,  his  eldest  son  and 
second  child,  Abraham  Lincoln,  was  born  on  12th  Feb- 
ruary, 1809,  the  first  child,  a  daughter,  Sarah,  having 
been  born  at  Ehzabeth  Town.  Four  years  later  the 
family  moved  to  a  more  comfortable  home  on  Knob 
Creek,  six  miles  from  Hodgensville,  and  here  Thomas 
Lincoln  bought  a  farm  of  238  acres. 

Three  years  after  this  Thomas  moved  again.    He 


20  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

does  not  appear  to  have  done  much  good  for  himself 
with  his  farm,  for  he  sold  it  for  $20  in  money  and  ten 
barrels  of  whisky.  These  and  his  household  effects 
he  loaded  in  a  flatboat,  which  finally  landed  him  at 
Thompson's  Ferry,  in  Perry  County,  Indiana.  The 
boat  upset  on  the  way,  and  part  of  the  whisky  was 
lost  as  well  as  some  of  his  other  effects,  which  were 
possibly  of  more  value.  Thomas  Lincoln's  destination 
was  a  piece  of  timber  land  one  and  a  half  miles  from 
what  is  now  Gentryville.  Here  he  built  a  log  cabin 
fourteen  feet  square,  open  to  the  weather  on  one  side, 
and  without  either  windows  or  chimney.  It  appears, 
then,  that  Abraham  Lincoln's  third  home  was  even 
worse  than  its  predecessors.  Here  Thomas  raised  a 
patch  of  corn  and  some  vegetables  during  the  summer. 
Other  food,  however,  was  not  difficult  to  procure,  as 
game  was  abundant,  and  the  streams  were  full  of  fish, 
and  wild  fruits  were  plentiful.  Abraham  slept  on  a 
heap  of  dry  leaves  in  a  loft  at  one  end  of  the  cabin. 
His  father  purchased  his  quarter-section  of  land,  ac- 
cording to  the  arrangements  of  those  days,  by  yearly 
payments,  and  it  took  him  eleven  years  in  this  manner 
to  obtain  a  patent  for  half  of  it.  Having  done  so, 
however,  he  erected  a  permanent  home  of  logs,  which 
proved  a  comfortable  tenement. 

In  the  autumn  of  1818,  when  Abraham  was  between 
nine  and  ten  years  old,  misfortune  overtook  the  family. 
An  epidemic  visited  the  neighborhood,  and  among  the 
victims  was  his  mother,  Nancy.     This  left  his  sister, 


MEMORIAL   ERECTED   IN   RECENT   YEARS  OVER  LINCOLN  S  BIRTH- 
PLACE   AT    HODGENSVILLE,    KY. 


Lincoln's  birthplace  at  hodgensville,  ky, 


CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  21 

a  girl  of  only  eleven  years,  in  charge  of  the  household. 
The  family  struggled  on  under  these  conditions  until 
the  autumn  of  1819,  when  their  father  returned  to 
Hodgensville  and  married  Sally  Bush  Johnston,  a 
widow  with  three  children,  whom  he  had  courted  before 
his  first  marriage.  She  brought  a  little  property  into 
the  family  as  well  as  her  three  children,  and  her  in- 
fluence proved  to  be  a  good  one,  as  she  stimulated  her 
husband  to  industry  and  made  a  prudent  and  wise 
stepmother  for  Abraham,  encouraging  his  talents  and 
assisting  him  in  every  way  as  far  as  she  was  able. 

Meanwhile  Abraham  was  growing  up.  His  great 
height  and  unusual  strength  made  him  foremost  in 
athletic  sports,  and  he  was  early  noted  for  his  studious 
habits  and  powers  of  memory.  He  soon  gained  a 
reputation  as  the  best  talker  and  story-teller  in  the 
neighborhood.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  worked  a 
ferry-boat  at  the  mouth  of  Anderson's  Creek,  transport- 
ing passengers  across  the  Ohio  River.  At  the  age  of 
nineteen  he  made  his  first  journey  outside  the  Indiana 
Forest.  Mr.  Gentry,  the  leading  man  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, who  kept  a  store,  sent  Abraham  along  with 
his  own  son,  Allen,  upon  a  flatboat  to  New  Orleans, 
with  a  load  of  bacon,  corn-meal,  and  other  provisions, 
pajdng  him  $8  a  month  and  his  passage  home  on  a 
steamboat.  On  this  journey  they  were  attacked  by 
some  negroes  while  trading  along  the  sugar  coast,  but 
succeeded  in  driving  them  off  without  serious  damage 
having  been  done. 


22  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

On  another  occasion  somewhat  later  a  second  voyage 
down  the  Mississippi  was  made  by  Lincoln.  An  in- 
cident in  this  journey  made  an  indelible  impression  on 
his  mind,  and  deserves  to  be  related  in  view  of  its 
bearing  on  the  work  he  was  destined  later  to  accom- 
plish. Among  the  sights  that  Lincoln  witnessed  at 
New  Orleans  on  this  occasion  was  the  slave-market  of 
that  city.  He  saw  there  negroes  chained,  maltreated, 
and  scourged.  In  a  slave  auction  he  and  his  com- 
panions were  the  witnesses  when  a  fine  mulatto  girl 
was  pinched,  prodded,  and  trotted  up  and  down  the 
room  to  show  how  she  moved,  that  bidders  might 
satisfy  themselves  of  the  soundness  of  the  article  which 
they  were  proposing  to  buy.  John  Hanks  observes  of 
the  incident:  "Lincoln  saw  it.  His  heart  bled.  He 
said  nothing  much.  Was  silent.  I  <3an  see,  however," 
he  adds,  "that  it  was  on  this  trip  that  he  formed  his 
opinion  of  slavery.  It  ran  its  iron  into  him  then  and 
there.  I  have  heard  him  say  so,  often."  On  another 
occasion,  referring  to  the  same  incident,  he  said  that 
Lincoln  remarked,  "If  ever  I  get  a  chance  to  hit  that 
thing  I  will  hit  it  hard."  Whether  this  observation 
was  put  into  his  mouth  in  the  hght  of  subsequent 
events,  we  have  no  means  of  knowing;  but  clearly 
Lincoln  did  not  forget. 

Such  incidents  in  early  life  often  leave  more  mark 
and  produce  greater  results  than  is  realized  at  the  time. 
Rousseau  tells  a  similar  story  with  regard  to  the  origin 
of  bis  hatred  of  the  oppressive  French  Government  of 


CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  23 

the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  in  the  course  of  his 
early  wanderings  in  France,  after  he  had  left  his  native 
Geneva.  Having  walked  further  from  home  than  he 
had  intended  and  lost  his  way,  he  found  himself  half 
dead  with  hunger  and  thirst  at  the  house  of  a  French 
peasant.  He  entered  in,  hoping  to  find  something  to 
appease  his  ravenous  appetite,  but  was  offered  nothing 
but  coarse  barley  bread  and  skimmed  milk.  By  and 
by,  however,  the  peasant  into  whose  home  he  had 
entered  discovered  the  character  of  his  guest,  and, 
having  satisfied  himself  that  he  was  not  Hkely  to  "give 
him  away,"  descended  by  a  trap-door  into  his  cellar, 
and  brought  up  some  good  browm  bread,  meat,  and  a 
bottle  of  wine,  and  subsequently  cooked  an  omelet 
for  his  benefit.  Having  done  so,  he  explained  to 
Rousseau  that  he  had  hidden  away  the  wine  on  account 
of  the  duties,  and  his  bread  on  account  of  the  taille, 
declaring  that  he  would  be  a  ruined  man  if  any  sus- 
picion were  aroused  that  he  was  not  djdng  of  hunger. 
In  commenting  on  the  incident,  Rousseau  observes: 
"Here  was  the  germ  of  that  inextinguishable  hatred 
which  afterward  grew  up  in  my  heart  against  the  vexa- 
tions that  harassed  the  common  people,  and  against 
their  oppressors.  This  man  actually  did  not  dare  to 
eat  the  bread  which  he  had  won  by  the  sweat  of  his 
brow,  and  only  avoided  ruin  by  showing  the  same 
misery  as  reigned  all  around  him."  It  is  a  mistake  to 
underestimate  the  influence  of  such  incidents  when 
they  occur  in  early  Ufe,  when  the  mind  is  more  im- 


24  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

pressionable  than  in  later  years.  In  both  these  cases 
an  incident,  apparently  quite  trivial,  led  to  results 
which  affected  the  whole  history  of  the  world. 

In  1830,  when  Abraham  was  just  twenty-one,  there 
was  yet  another  family  migration.  "His  father  and 
stepmother,"  he  tells  us,  ''with  the  families  of  the  two 
daughters  and  sons-in-law  of  the  stepmother,  left  the 
old  homestead  in  Indiana  and  came  to  IlUnois.  His 
father  and  family  settled  a  new  place  on  the  north  side 
of  the  Sangamon  River,  at  the  junction  of  the  timber 
land  and  property  about  ten  miles  westerly  from 
Decatur.  Here  they  built  a  log  cabin,  into  which 
they  removed,  and  made  sufficient  rails  to  fence  ten 
acres  of  ground,  fenced  and  broke  the  ground,  and 
raised  a  crop  of  sown  corn  upon  it  the  same  year." 
The  sons-in-law  of  his  stepmother,  here  alluded  to,  were 
Dennis  Hanks  and  Levi  Hall,  who  had  married  Sarah 
and  Matilda,  Lincoln's  stepsisters. 

Abraham  Lincoln's  schooling  was  of  a  very  spas- 
modic character.  He  first  went  to  school  when  he  was 
seven  years  old  and  was  living  in  Kentucky.  The 
school  was  held  in  a  log  hut  near  the  Lincolns'  cabin, 
and  was  taught  by  an  Irish  CathoHc  of  the  name  of 
Zachariah  Riney,  and  it  was  here  that  he  learned  to 
read.  In  the  following  year  he  attended  along  with 
his  sister  Sarah  a  school  some  three  or  four  mijf^s  dis- 
tant, kept  by  one  Caleb  Hazel,  where  the  two  children 
were  taught  to  write.  This  was  all  the  schooling  he 
had  in  Kentucky  except  what  his  mother  taught  him. 


CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  25 

At  the  age  of  nine  he  again  attended  school  for  a  few 
months,  and  apparently  again  after  a  long  interval 
when  he  was  fourteen.  He  also  attended  some  classes 
with  a  man  named  Swaney  some  three  years  later. 
He  was  always  a  studious  boy,  and  his  inclination  in 
this  direction  was  encouraged  by  his  stepmother,  who 
helped  him  in  his  work  at  home  and  read  with  him. 
His  father,  however,  evidently  considered  that  he  was 
better  occupied  assisting  him  in  his  farm  work  than 
in  cultivating  his  mind  with  a  view  to  future 
eventuaUties. 


Chapter  II 
EARLY  STRUGGLES 

When  he  reached  the  age  of  twenty-one  Lincoln  be- 
came a  clerk  at  Denton  Offutt's  store  at  New  Salem, 
and  in  the  following  year  started  on  a  mercantile 
adventure  on  his  own  account,  which  ended  dis- 
astrously. He  went  into  partnership  with  a  man 
named  Berry,  in  a  local  grocery  store.  Berry  took  to 
drink,  and  the  store  was  finally  sold  at  a  heavy  loss.  The 
good-will  and  stock  of  the  store  had  been  bought  on 
credit,  and  when  the  business  was  disposed  of  this 
was  a  credit  transaction  also.  The  man  to  whom  it 
was  sold  shortly  after  failed  and  disappeared.  Lincoln 
was  thus  left  with  the  liability  for  the  purchase  money 
of  the  store  upon  his  shoulders,  without  having  seen 
any  part  of  the  money  for  which  the  business  had  been 
sold  again.  Berry  himself  had  died  of  drink,  so  that 
there  was  no  assistance  forthcoming  in  this  direction. 
This  Uabihty  weighed  very  heavily  on  Lincoln  for  a 
number  of  years,  and  he  used  humorously  to  allude  to  it 
as  "the  National  Debt."     Rather  than  go  bankrupt 

or  come  to  a  composition  with  his  creditors,  he  de- 

26 


EARLY  STRUGGLES  27 

cided,  like  Sir  Walter  Scott  under  similar  circum- 
stances, to  offer  to  pay  off  the  whole  on  the  under- 
standing that  they  would  give  him  sufficient  time  to  do 
so.  He  accordingly  went  to  them,  explained  the  cir- 
cumstances, and  undertook  to  give  them  all  he  could 
earn  over  and  above  his  bare  living. 

In  the  upshot  he  paid  them  all  oft',  but  it  took  him 
some  fifteen  years  to  do  so.  In  only  one  case  was  his 
offer  refused,  one  of  his  creditors  selling  his  interest  in 
the  debt  due  to  him.  The  purchaser  eventually 
brought  action  and  obtained  judgment  against  him, 
and  levied  upon  the  horse,  saddle,  and  instruments 
which  were  used  by  him  in  the  surveying  business  in 
which  he  w^as  at  that  time  engaged.  At  this  crisis  in 
his  fate  a  farmer  friend  of  his,  of  the  name  of  James 
Short,  heard  of  his  trouble,  and  without  informing 
Lincoln  attended  the  sale  and  bought  in  the  horse  and 
instruments  for  SI 20,  making  them  over  to  their 
former  owner.  When  Lincoln  became  President  he 
did  not  forget  his  benefactor.  Thirty  years  after, 
James  Short,  who  had  removed  to  the  Far  West,  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  Washington  containing  the  an- 
nouncement that  he  had  been  commissioned  by  the 
Government  as  Indian  agent. 

Shortly  after  this  Lincoln  had  his  one  and  only  ex- 
perience of  soldiering.  The  Indian  chief,  Black  Hawk, 
had  entered  into  a  treaty  to  remain  on  the  western  side 
of  the  Mississippi.  He  crossed  the  river,  however,  in 
defiance  of  the  agreement  entered  into.    The  Governor 


28  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

of  Illinois  thereupon  called  for  volunteei's,  and  Lincoln 
among  others  offered  his  services.  Much  to  his  sur- 
prise and  gratification,  he  was  elected  captain  of  his 
company,  this  being  doubtless  due  not  a  little  to  his 
great  physical  strength  and  height.  He  was  now  six 
foot  four,  and  enjoyed  no  small  reputation  among  his 
neighbors  for  his  feats  of  physical  prowess.  He  saw, 
however,  no  actual  fighting,  and  apparently  had  his 
work  cut  out  in  keeping  his  somewhat  unruly  company 
in  order.  On  one  occasion  during  this  expedition  a 
friendly  Indian  found  his  way  into  the  American  camp. 
He  produced  a  letter  of  credentials  which  was  pro- 
nounced a  forgery  by  Lincoln's  men,  who  proposed 
to  hang  him  as  a  spy.  Lincoln,  however,  appeared 
on  the  scene  in  time,  and  with  his  usual  humanity 
promptly  rescued  the  hapless  man  from  his  impending 
fate. 

As  soon  as  this  little  war  was  over,  Lincoln  became  a 
candidate  for  his  State  Legislature,  and,  tho  not 
elected,  succeeded  in  securing  practically  the  whole 
votes  in  his  immediate  neighborhood.  He  had  shown 
quite  early  a  remarkable  aptitude  as  a  ready,  original, 
and  witty  speaker,  as  well  as  a  popular  story-teller, 
and  his  power  of  getting  the  ear  of  his  audience  by  his 
direct  and  frank  manner,  coupled  with  his  pithy  and 
homely  illustrations  in  support  of  his  arguments,  soon 
earned  for  him  a  reputation  of  which  he  was  not 
slow  to  take  advantage.  Whatever  people  might  have 
thought  in  those  early  days  of  his  qualifications  as 


EARLY  STRUGGLES  29 

their  representative,  there  were  apparently  no  two 
opinions  as  to  his  unique  gifts  as  a  popular  stump 
orator. 

Lincoln  was  now  at  his  wits'  end  to  find  "the  need- 
ful.'' He  subsisted  for  some  time  living  from  hand  to 
mouth  by  the  aid  of  odd  jobs  done  for  neighboring 
farmers  and  other  friends.  But  when  his  prospects 
seemed  at  their  lowest  he  was  fortunate  in  being  recom- 
mended to  John  Calhoun,  then  surveyor  of  the  county, 
as  his  assistant.  Lincoln  at  this  time  knew  nothing 
of  the  work  which  would  quahfy  him  for  his  position. 
With  the  help,  however,  of  one  Mentor  Graham,  a 
schoolmaster  who  had  already  employed  him  as  a 
clerk,  and  with  much  hard  application  on  his  own 
part,  he  soon  acquired  the  rudiments  of  the  business, 
and  it  has  always  been  said  to  his  credit  that  his 
surveys  of  property  were  done  with  the  greatest  care 
and  accuracy.  A  further  small  financial  assistance 
came  to  him  by  his  appointment  to  the  local  post- 
mastership.  New  Salem  was  but  a  village,  and  has 
long  since  disappeared  off  the  map.  The  duties  in- 
volved, accordingly,  were  not  serious,  and  it  is  stated 
that  he  ''carried  the  office  around  in  his  hat."  In 
1831  he  again  became  a  candidate  for  the  Illinois 
Legislature.  His  uncouth  appearance  and  ill-fitting 
clothes  (his  trousers  were  always  several  inches  too 
short  for  him)  were  successful  as  an  advertisement  of 
their  wearer,  but  the  first  impressions  such  a  strange 
figure  created  were  by  no  means  always  in  his  favor. 


so  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

It  is  related  that  one  of  those  present  at  an  early  elec- 
tion meeting  asked,  on  seeing  him,  "Can't  the  party 
raise  any  better  material  than  that?"  But  after  hear- 
ing him  speak  he  completely  changed  his  mind,  and 
declared  that  Lincoln  knew  more  than  all  the  other 
candidates  put  together.  On  this  occasion  he  was 
duly  returned,  being  at  the  time  twenty-five  years  of 
age. 

In  those  days  poUticians  did  not  wait  for  any  pohtical 
convention  to  construct  a  platform,  but  were  in  the 
habit  of  issuing  their  own  manifestoes,  irrespective  of 
the  party  to  which  they  were  attached.  The  follow- 
ing is  Lincoln's  as  it  appeared  in  the  local  paper  of  the 
day: — 

"New  Salem,  June  13,  1836. 
"To  the  Editor  of  the  *  Journal.* 

"In  your  paper  of  last  Saturday  I  see  a  communication 
over  the  signature  of  '  Many  Voters '  in  which  the  candidates 
who  are  announced  in  the  Journal  are  called  upon  to  'show 
their  hands,'    Agreed.    Here's  mine: — 

"I  go  for  all  sharing  the  privileges  of  the  government  who 
assist  in  bearing  its  burdens.  Consequently,  I  go  for  admit- 
ting all  whites  to  the  right  of  suffrage  who  pay  taxes  or  bear 
arms  (by  no  means  excluding  females). 

"If  elected  I  shall  consider  the  whole  people  of  Sangamon 
my  constituents,  as  well  those  that  oppose  as  those  that 
support  me. 

"While  ecting  as  their  representative,  I  shall  be  governed 
by  their  will  on  all  subjects  upon  which  I  have  the  means  of 
knowing  what  their  \\ill  is;   and  upon  all  others  I  shall  do 


EARLY  STRUGGLES  31 

what  my  own  judgment  teaches  me  will  best  advance  their 
interests.  Whether  elected  or  not,  I  go  for  distributing 
the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  public  lands  to  the  several  States 
to  enable  our  State,  in  common  with  others,  to  dig  canals 
and  construct  railroads  without  borrowing  money  and  paying 
the  interest  on  it. 

"If  alive  on  the  first  Monday  in  November,  I  shall  vote 
for  Hugh  L.  White  for  President. — Very  respectfully, 

"A.  Lincoln." 

It  is  clear  that  Lincoln  appealed  to  the  electors  on  a 
broad  platform,  boldly  announcing  his  approval  of 
female  suffrage,  and  an  enterprising  policy  with  regard 
to  the  development  of  the  resources  of  the  State.  This 
ambitious  program  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  carried  a 
good  deal  further  than  the  financial  capacity  of  the 
State  allowed,  and  reckless  expenditure,  regardless  of 
the  abihty  of  the  State  to  foot  the  bills  involved,  soon 
landed  Illinois  in  a  parlous  predicament.  In  this  case, 
as  in  others  throughout  his  Hfe,  Lincoln  showed  a  lack 
of  any  true  grasp  of  large  financial  problems.  It  is 
true  he  was  not  alone  to  blame  for  the  position  that 
resulted,  but  he  threw  himself  heart  and  soul  into  a 
venture  which  more  prudent  statesmanship  would  have 
approached  in  far  reckless  way,  and  the  State  suffered 
from  the  results  of  the  too  sanguine  temperament  of 
its  representatives  for  many  years  after. 

It  was  on  the  second  occasion  of  his  election  to 
the  Illinois  Legislature  that  Lincoln  made  a  speech 
which  was  very  characteristic  of  the  speaker,  and  which 
was  remembered  against  its  unfortunate  victim  for  a 


32  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

long  time  after  it  had  been  delivered.  It  was  a  few 
days  before  the  election  at  Springfield,  and  among  those 
present  was  a  certain  George  Forquer,  a  man  of  recog- 
nized prominence  and  ability  as  a  lawyer  in  the  locality. 
Forquer  had  been  one  of  the  leading  members  of  the 
Whig  party,  but  had  recently  turned  his  coat  and  joined 
the  Democrats,  to  the  great  disgust  of  his  erstwhile 
supporters.  As  a  result  apparently  of  this  change  of 
mind,  he  had  received  the  appointment  of  Registrar 
of  the  Land  Office.  About  the  same  time  Forquer 
had  had  built  for  himself  a  mansion  of  greater  pre- 
tensions than  those  of  his  neighbors,  and  over  it  he  had 
had  erected  a  lightning-rod,  the  first  of  its  kind  to  be 
seen  in  Springfield.  At  the  conclusion  of  Lincoln's 
speech,  Forquer  rose  and  requested  to  be  heard.  He 
began  by  saying  that  the  young  man  (alluding  to 
Lincoln)  would  have  to  be  taken  down,  and  regretted 
that  the  task  devolved  upon  himself.  He  replied  in 
detail  to  Lincoln's  speech,  giving  himself  considerable 
airs  of  superiority.  As  soon  as  he  sat  down,  Lincoln 
rose  to  reply.  "Mr.  Forquer,"  he  observed,  "com- 
menced his  speech  by  announcing  that  the  young  man 
would  have  to  be  taken  down.  It  is  for  you,  fellow- 
citizens,  not  for  me,  to  say  whether  I  am  up  or  down. 
The  gentleman  has  seen  fit  to  allude  to  my  being  a 
young  man;  but  he  forgets  that  I  am  older  in  years 
than  I  am  in  the  tricks  and  trades  of  politicians.  I 
desire  to  live,  and  I  desire  place  and  distinction;  but 
I  would  rather  die  now  than,  like  this  gentleman,  live 


EARLY  STRUGGLES  33 

to  see  the  day  that  I  would  change  my  politics  for  an 
office  worth  three  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  then 
feel  cpmpelled  to  erect  a  lightning-rod  to  protect  a 
guilty  conscience  from  an  oJBf ended  God.'*  The  effect 
of  the  rejoinder  was  dramatic,  and  Forquer  found  it 
desirable  to  make  himself  very  scarce  for  some  time 
afterwards. 

Lincoln's  capacity  in  his  quite  early  life  for  holding 
his  audience,  as  well  as  his  ungainly  appearance,  are 
borne  witness  to  by  Judge  Stephen  T,  Logan,  with  whom 
he  subsequently  went  into  partnership.  Judge  Logan 
writes  of  him  in  those  days:  "He  was  a  tall,  gawky, 
and  rough-looking  fellow.  His  pantaloons  did  not  meet 
his  shoes  by  six  inches,  but  after  he  began  speaking  I 
became  very  much  interested  in  him.  He  made  a 
very  sensible  speech.  His  manner  was  very  much  the 
same  as  in  after  life.  That  is,  the  somewhat  pecuHar 
characteristics  were  apparent  then,  though  of  course 
in  after  years  he  evinced  more  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience. But  he  had  then  the  same  novelty  and  the 
same  pecuHarity  in  presenting  his  ideas." 

Lincoln  remained  a  member  of  the  Illinois  Legis- 
lature for  some  time,  being  regularly  reelected  for 
three  further  terms  of  two  years  each.  In  the  mean- 
time he  had  been  devoting  his  leisure  to  a  study  of  the 
law,  and  had  even  practised  a  Httle  as  an  unlicensed 
practitioner  in  the  inferior  courts.  In  1837  he  was 
fortunate  in  obtaining  a  proper  Ucense.  In  those  days, 
in  the  Western  States,  reading  for  the  law  was  not  so 


34  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

arduous  or  so  exacting  an  undertaking  as  it  is  to-day, 
and  a  comparatively  brief  course  of  study  was  deemed 
sufficient  as  a  qualification. 

About  this  time  a  Bill  was  brought  in  and  passed  by 
the  State  Government  for  moving  the  capital  to  Spring- 
field, for  the  carrying  of  which  Lincoln  himself  enjoyed 
no  little  local  credit.  With  the  removal  of  the  Legis- 
lature Lincoln  removed  himself.  The  society  in  Spring- 
field was  naturally  of  a  much  less  primitive  kind  than 
that  of  New  Salem,  and  Lincoln  began  to  find  himself 
for  the  first  time  in  association  with  people  who  had 
some  pretensions  to  education  and  culture.  Here  he 
entered  into  a  law  partnership  with  a  friend,  John  T. 
Stuart,  and  on  Stuart's  election  to  Congress  four  years 
later  a  new  partnership  was  formed  with  Stephen  T. 
Logan  as  above  mentioned.  He  was  still  at  this  time 
in  the  most  urgent  need  of  funds.  An  incident  on  his 
first  arrival  at  Springfield  bears  eloquent  testimony 
to  this  fact.  Requiring  to  find  himself  some  place  of 
abode,  he  went  into  a  shop  and  purchased  a  bedstead 
with  a  view  to  furnishing  it,  and  then  went  on  to  a  young 
tradesman,  one  Joshua  Speed,  to  ask  the  price  of  the 
cheapest  bedding  and  other  necessary  articles.  The 
sum  quoted  him  was  S17,  which  he  found  it  impossible 
to  produce.  Joshua  Speed,  however,  took  a  fancy  to 
his  customer,  and,  having  a  large  double  bedstead 
himself,  offered  to  let  him  share  it  for  the  time  being. 
Lincoln  went  up-stairs  to  have  a  look  at  the  room,  and 
came  back  delighted.     ''Well,  Speed,  I'm  moved,"  he 


EARLY  STRUGGLES  35 

said,  shaking  him  warmly  by  the  hand.  Speed  was 
evidently  imprest  by  his  tragic  air.  "1  looked  up 
at  him,"  he  said,  narrating  the  story  of  his  interview 
afterwards,  ''and  thought  then,  as  I  think  now,  that 
I  never  saw  so  gloomy  and  melancholy  a  face  in  my 
life." 


Chapter  III 

LOVE  AFFAIRS  AND  MARRIAGE 

To  his  constant  financial  difficulties  at  this  time  must 
be  added  the  effect  of  a  recent  love  affair  which  had 
had  a  very  pathetic  ending,  the  tragedy  of  which  for  a 
time  went  near  to  affecting  Lincoln's  reason,  and  is 
stated  to  have  cast  a  shadow  over  all  his  subsequent 
Hfe.  This  love  affair  had  for  its  object  a  certain 
Anne  Rutledge,  who  was  the  daughter  of  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  village  of  Salem,  who  kept  the  tavern 
at  which  Lincoln  was  sl  boarder.  He  came  of  a  family 
of  some  note,  and  boasted  of  the  fact  that  his  grand- 
father was  one  of  the  signatories  of  the  Declaration  of 
American  Independence.  The  girl,  who  is  described 
as  something  of  a  local  beauty,  had  auburn  hair,  blue 
eyes,  and  a  fair  complexion.  At  the  time  Lincoln 
first  knew  her  she  was  engaged  to  a  certain  John 
M'Neill  or,  as  he  gave  his  name  subsequently,  M'Na- 
mara.  This  young  man,  starting  in  poverty,  had  made 
very  successful  headway  with  his  business  undertak- 
ings, and  the  match  seemed  to  hold  out  favorable  pros- 
pects  to   the   young   couple.     M'Namara,    however, 

before  settling  down  and  marrying,  proposed  to  go 

S6 


LOVE  AFFAIRS  AND  MARRIAGE        37 

East  to  arrange  certain  business  matters  in  connection 
with  his  family,  who,  he  said,  did  not  know  of  his 
whereabouts,  and  from  whom  he  had  dehberately  con- 
cealed his  movements,  fearing  that  they  might  interfere 
with  his  prospects.  M'Namara,  to  whom  the  girl  was 
obviously  deeply  attached,  went  on  his  projected 
journey,  but  his  letters,  after  his  departure,  grew 
fewer  and  colder,  and  it  seemed  to  his  fiancee  that  he 
would  be  glad  to  be  released  from  his  engagement. 
She  wrote  eventually  and  made  the  offer  to  set  him 
free,  but  waited  in  vain  for  an  answer  to  her  letter. 
Meanwhile  her  pathetic  air  had  aroused  the  sympathy 
of  the  neighbors,  and  her  own  family  in  particular 
were  intensely  indignant  with  M'Namara,  and  urged 
her  to  give  up  all  thought  of  a  man  who  had  treated 
her  so  badly. 

About  this  time  Lincoln  appeared  on  the  scene,  and 
naturally,  as  he  boarded  at  her  father's  tavern,  saw 
much  of  the  young  girl.  Indeed,  it  appears  that  he 
generally  sat  beside  her  at  table,  stnd  spent  the  evening 
in  her  company.  Pity  is  said  to  be  akin  to  love,  and 
certainly  in  Lincoln's  case  one  soon  gave  place  to  the 
other.  He  was  encouraged  in  his  suit  by  her  relatives, 
who  were  glad  to  place  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the 
return  of  M'Namara,  and  finally,  recognizing  the  hope- 
lessness of  regaining  her  first  love,  she  consented  to 
become  his  wife.  The  shock,  however,  of  what  she 
had  suffered  proved  too  much  for  her.  She  developed 
brain  fever,  which  ended  fatally.     The  neighbors  at- 


38  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

tributed  her  illness  to  a  broken  heart.  The  blow  to 
Lincoln  was  terrible.  He  sank  into  a  condition  of  pro- 
found melancholy,  and  his  grief  was  so  intense  that  his 
friends  were  afraid  that  he  would  commit  suicide. 
Later  on,  after  he  had  been  elected  President,  speaking 
of  the  matter  to  a  friend,  he  observed,  ''I  really  loved 
that  girl,  and  often  think  of  her  now;  and  I  have  loved 
the  name  of  Rutledge  to  this  day.'* 

His  next  affair  of  the  heart,  if  so  it  may  be  called, 
occurred  three  or  four  years  later,  at  Springfield. 
The  heroine  in  this  case  was  a  Miss  Mary  Owens. 
It  is  evident  that  Lincoln's  affections  were  never  really 
engaged  in  the  case,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  drawn 
into  a  false  position  in  the  matter  by  his  own  rather 
fantastic  sense  of  honor.  He  had  met  Miss  Owens 
once  before,  and  thought  her  attractive,  and,  meeting 
her  married  sister,  Mrs.  Abel",  took  the  opportunity 
to  inquire  after  her.  Mrs.  Abel  told  Lincoln,  ap- 
parently in  jest,  that  she  would  bring  her  sister  back 
with  her  to  Springfield  if  he  would  consent  to  marry  her. 
The  offer  was  accepted  by  Lincoln,  who  did  not  seem 
to  consider  that  it  was  meant  seriously.  He  was  in- 
formed, however,  later,  to  his  consternation,  that  the 
young  lady  expected  him  to  fulfil  his  agreement,  and 
he  felt  himself  bound  to  propose  to  her,  which  he  did 
in  a  manner  which  must  certainly  have  given  her  the 
impression  that  she  had  no  very  ardent  lover.  In  any 
case  she  refused  him,  and  his  feehngs  on  the  occasion 
seem  to  have  been  a  mixture  of  humiliation  and  relief, 


LOVE  AFFAIRS  AND  MARRIAGE        39 

as  he  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  lady  in 
question  was  not  likely  to  find  another  lover  in  a 
hurry.  In  this,  as  the  event  proved,  he  was  mistaken. 
It  is  admitted  by  those  who  knew  her  that  she  was  a 
capable,  inteUigent,  and  withal  handsome  young 
woman,  but  evidently  she  did  not  make  appeal  to 
Lincoln.  When  he  met  her  the  second  time  her  early 
attractions  had  given  place  to  a  somewhat  premature 
stoutness  and  matronly  figure,  and  she  must  have  pre- 
sented in  every  way  a  marked  contrast  to  his  first  love. 
She,  on  her  part,  complained  that  Lincoln  was  lacking 
in  the  attentions  which  a  girl  had  a  right  to  expect  from 
an  admirer,  which,  under  the  circumstances,  is  hardly 
to  be  wondered  at.  Writing  to  a  lady  friend  on  the 
subject,  Lincoln  observed,  ''Others  have  been  made 
fools  of  by  girls,  but  this  can  never  with  truth  be  said 
of  me.  I  most  emphatically  in  this  instance  made  a 
fool  of  myself" — a  conclusion  with  which  most  people 
will  find  it  difficult  to  disagree. 

Certainly  Lincoln  was  one  of  those  people  for  whom 
the  proverb  that  the  course  of  true  love  never  did  run 
smooth  had  a  specially  appropriate  application.  His 
third  adventure  of  the  kind  was  destined  to  eventuate 
in  matrimony,  but  not  before  serious  compHcations  had 
supervened;  and  even  so  the  choice  of  his  partner  has 
been  the  subject  of  considerable  criticism  and  comment 
on  the  part  of  his  biographers,  who  seem  generally  to 
have  agreed  with  her  sister,  who  made  the  remark  in 
the  early  days  of  their  courtship,  that  she  and  Lincoln 


40  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

were  not  suited  to  one  another.  The  lady  in  question 
was  a  certain  Mary  Todd,  who  originally  came  to 
Springfield  on  a  visit  to  her  sister,  who  was  the  wife 
of  Ninian  W.  Edwards,  a  person  of  some  consequence 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  one  of  Lincoln's  colleagues  in 
the  Illinois  Legislature.  There  does  not  seem  to  be 
much  dispute  about  Miss  Todd's  early  attractions. 
She  occupied  a  prominent  position  in  the  society  of 
that  day,  was  bright,  witty,  and  vivacious,  and  by  no 
means  destitute  of  good  looks.  She  was,  however, 
quick-tempered  and  somewhat  imperious,  and  fre- 
quent quarrels  broke  out  between  the  two  lovers  as 
a  consequence. 

Matters  at  last  became  so  unsatisfactoiy  Ihat  it 
seemed  a  mistake  to  continue  the  engagement,  and 
Lincoln  himself  suggested  its  being  broken  off.  This, 
however,  was  more  than  the  young  lady  herself  had 
bargained  for.  She  burst  into  tears  at  the  interview, 
and  Lincoln  kissed  her,  in  token,  presumably,  of  for- 
giveness. The  upshot  of  it,  however,  was  that  the 
engagement  continued,  in  spite  of  Lincoln's  reluctance 
and  obvious  unhappiness  over  the  prospect  of  marriage. 
Things  drifted  on  until  (according  to  one  story)  the 
marriage  was  finally  fixt  for  the  first  of  January, 
1841.  When  the  day  came  every  one  put  in  an  ap- 
pearance at  the  anticipated  ceremony  except  the 
bridegroom,  who  was  waited  for  in  vain.^    The  next 

1  This  incident  has  been  disputed,  but  the  reference  to  "the 
fatal  first  of  January,  1841"  stands  on  record  as  a  crisis  which 


LOVE  AFFAIRS  AND  MARRIAGE        41 

day,  after  a  persistent  search,  Lincoln's  friends  found 
him,  in  a  condition  of  misery  and  desperation.  In  a 
letter  written  on  the  23rd  January  following,  to  his 
partner,  Stuart,  he  observes:  '*!  am  now  the  most 
miserable  man  living.  If  what  I  feel  were  equally  dis- 
tributed to  the  whole  human  family,  there  would  not 
be  one  cheerful  face  on  earth.  Whether  I  shall  ever 
be  better  I  cannot  tell.  I  awfully  forebode  I  shall  not." 
Apparently  after  this  fiasco  Miss  Todd  did  the  only 
thing  which  seemed  possible  under  the  circumstances, 
and  wrote  releasing  Lincoln  from  his  engagement. 
Lincoln's  own  disincUnation  to  the  marriage  was  quite 
manifest,  and  the  prospect  of  a  happy  consummation 
seemed  outside  the  bounds  of  possibiUty.  By  degrees 
he  recovered  his  spirits  and  resumed  his  practise  of  the 
law.  The  paths  of  the  two  diverged,  and  the  whole 
matter  might  well  have  been  treated  as  an  episode  of 
the  past.  Things  went  on  in  this  fashion  for  some 
eighteen  months,  when  the  idea  occurred  to  the  wife 
of  Simeon  Francis,  editor  of  the  Sangamon  Journaly 
to  bring  the  two  together  once  more.  The  lady  in 
question  was  a  warm  friend  of  Mary  Todd,  and  pre- 
sumably was  acquainted  with  her  wishes;  while  the 
husband  was  a  friend  of  Lincoln.  Mrs.  Francis  was 
a  great  social  entertainer,  and  doubtless  it  seemed  to 
her  that  if  she  could  bring  about  a  reconciUation  be- 

led  not  only  to  a  breach  between  the  two  lovers,  but  also  to  a 
serious  breakdown  on  Lincoln's  part.  Under  the  circumstances, 
what  precisely  happened  must  be  left  to  surmise. 


42  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

tween  the  rising  young  politician  and  the  brilUant 
society  belle  it  would  be  a  feather  in  her  social  cap. 
The  result  was  that  the  engagement  was  renewed, 
Lincoln,  tho  unwilKng,  perhaps  feeUng,  not  without 
reason,  that  he  had  inflicted  upon  the  young  lady  an 
undeserved  humihation  and  owed  her  reparation. 

For  fear  of  a  renewed  disaster  the  marriage  arrange- 
ments were  kept  a  profound  secret.  One  morning  in 
November  Lincoln  arrived  at  the  home  of  his  friend, 
James  H.  Matheney,  while  the  latter  was  still  in  bed, 
and  informed  him  that  he  was  to  be  married  the  same 
evening.  The  marriage  hcense  was  duly  obtained,  and 
the  pair  were  united  by  the  Rev.  Charles  N.  Dresser 
in  the  presence  of  a  hastily  assembled  company  of 
friends  of  the  bride  and  bridegroom.  It  is  plain  that, 
as  Wilham  H.  Herndon,  Lincoln's  law  partner  for  many 
years,  states,  Lincoln  married  Mary  Todd  to  save  his 
honor,  and  in  doing  so  sacrificed  his  domestic  peace. 
The  main  facts  of  the  case  have  been  glossed  over  or 
disputed  by  a  number  of  biographers,  but  they  do  not 
appear  to  admit  of  any  real  doubt;  and  in  view  of  the 
long  period  that  has  elapsed  since  the  date  of  these 
incidents,  and  the  fact  that  all  the  people  concerned 
are  long  since  dead,  it  seems  foolish  to  make  any  con- 
cealment of  the  real  circumstances  of  the  case.  Mary 
Todd  was  quick-tempered,  inconsiderate,  and  lacking 
in  self-control.  As  a  wife  she  was  constantly  making 
scenes  which  rendered  her  husband's  position  extremely 
uncomfortable,   and  his  uniform  forbearance  merely 


LOVE  AFFAIRS  AND  MARRIAGE         43 

had  the  effect  of  making  matters  worse  than  they  would 
have  been  had  the  lady  married  a  husband  who  was 
less  disposed  to  tolerate  her  outbursts. 

One  or  two  instances  will  be  sufficient  to  illustrate 
this  regrettable  tendency.  A  lady  relative  who  Hved 
for  two  years  with  the  Lincolns  told  Mr.  Herndon  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  the  habit  of  lying  on  the  floor  with 
the  back  of  a  chair  for  a  pillow  when  he  read.  "One 
evening,  when  in  this  position  in  the  hall,  a  knock  was 
heard  at  the  front  door,  and,  though  in  his  shirt  sleeves, 
Lincoln  answered  the  call.  Two  ladies  were  at  the 
door,  whom  he  invited  into  the  parlor,  notifying  them, 
in  his  open,  famihar  way,  that  he  would  Hrot  the 
women  folk  out.'  Mrs.  Lincoln  from  ^n  adjoining  room 
witnessed  the  ladies'  entrance  and  overheard  her  hus- 
band's jocose  expression.  Her  indignation  was  so  in- 
stantaneous that  she  made  the  situation  exceedingly 
interesting  for  him,  and  he  was  glad  to  retreat  from 
the  mansion.  He  did  not  return  till  very  late  at  night, 
and  then  shpt  in  quietly  at  a  back  door."  One  of  the 
difficulties  of  the  household  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
Mrs.  Lincoln's  unreasonableness  and  violent  temper 
made  it  impossible  for  her  to  retain  servants  in  her 
employ  for  any  length  of  time. 

On  one  occasion  a  man  whose  niece  had  been  engaged 
by  her  called  at  the  house  to  learn  why  the  girl  had 
been  so  unceremoniously  dismissed  from  her  emploj^- 
ment.  Mrs.  Lincoln  met  the  man  at  the  door,  giving 
vent  to  her  feeUngs  and  resorting  to  such  violent 


4A  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

gesticulations  and  emphatic  language  that  the  man 
beat  a  hasty  retreat.  He  took  the  earliest  opportunity 
of  complaining  to  Lincoln  himself  on  the  matter  and 
exacting,  as  he  hoped,  proper  satisfaction  for  his  wife's 
conduct.  He  found  Lincoln  entertaining  a  crowd  in  a 
local  store.  The  man  called  him  to  the  door  and  put 
his  complaint  before  him.  Lincoln,  having  listened  to 
his  story,  observed,  in  his  quiet  way:  *'My  friend,  I 
regret  to  hear  this;  but  let  me  ask  you  in  all  candor, 
cannot  you  endure  for  a  few  moments  what  I  have 
had  as  my  daily  portion  for  the  last  fifteen  years?" 
Lincoln's  appeal  completely  disarmed  the  offended 
fellow-townsman.  Grasping  the  unfortunate  husband's 
hands,  he  expressed  his  sympathy  in  no  uncertain 
terms.  Lincoln  afterwards,  adds  Herndon,  had  no  bet- 
ter friend  in  Springfield. 

Lincoln  made  special  efforts  to  retain  the  services  of 
one  of  the  servants  who  was  specially  useful  in  the 
household.  On  account  of  the  frequency  of  the  tem- 
pestuous scenes  with  Mrs.  Lincoln,  this  was  no  easy 
matter.  Finally  Lincoln  made  an  arrangement  with 
her,  of  course  without  his  wife's  knowledge,  to  pay 
her  an  extra  dollar  a  week  out  of  his  own  pocket,  on  the 
understanding  that  she  should  humor  his  wife  and 
overlook  her  frequent  outbreaks.  The  natural  result 
of  this  state  of  affairs  was  that  Lincoln  did  not  spend 
more  time  in  his  home  than  he  found  necessary.  In 
this  connection  Judge  Davis's  statement  is  of  interest. 
He  observes:   ''As  a  general  rule,  when  all  the  lawyers 


LOVE  AFFAIRS  AND  MARRIAGE        45 

on  a  Saturday  evening  would  go  home  and  see  their 
famiUes  and  friends,  Lincoln  would  find  some  excuse 
and  refuse  to  go.  We  said  nothing,  but  it  seemed  to 
us  all  that  he  was  not  domestically  happy. '^ 

Mary  Todd  was  extremely  ambitious  from  a  social 
standpoint;  and,  indeed,  had  assured  her  friends,  long 
before  she  married,  that  she  had  set  her  heart  upon 
becoming  a  President's  wife.  Curiously  enough,  a 
double  chance  seemed  to  offer  itself  to  her,  as  during 
her  early  engagement  with  Lincoln,  Stephen  A.  Doug- 
las, destined  later  to  become  Lincoln's  greatest  rival, 
and  looked  upon  by  many  as  a  probable  future  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  crossed  her  path.  In  spite 
of  her  prior  engagement,  a  somewhat  violent  flirtation 
ensued,  and  it  was  thought  by  some  that  Miss  Todd 
preferred  Douglas  to  his  rival.  As,  from  the  society 
point  of  view,  Douglas  was  far  more  accomplished  and 
attractive  than  Lincoln,  who  was  shy  and  awkward  in 
the  presence  of  the  ladies,  this  is  hardly  to  be  wondered 
at.  In  any  case,  Mary  Todd  fell  ill,  harassed,  as  it 
appears,  by  her  perplexity  between  the  rival  suitors, 
and  it  is  stated  that  the  lady's  physician,  Dr.  William 
Wallace,  intervened,  saw  Douglas,  and  induced  him 
to  withdraw.  It  is  clear  that  Lincoln  was  under  the 
spell  of  the  lady's  fascination,  even  while  he  felt  that 
the  marriage  could  only  end  in  disaster.  His  habitual 
inabihty  to  say  "No"  sealed  his  fate,  and  led  to  a 
marriage  which  failed  at  least  to  bring  him  domestic 
happiness. 


46  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

There  were,  however,  undoubted  compensations. 
Lincohi  had  no  family  connections  or  social  influence. 
Mary  Todd  had  both.  She  was  not  only  a  good  con- 
versationahst,  but  spoke  French  and  English  with 
equal  fluency.  She  had  a  quick  intelligence  and,  when 
her  temper  did  not  get  the  better  of  her,  charming  and 
attractive  manners.  In  addition  to  this,  a  very  im- 
portant point  in  marrying  a  man  so  poor  as  Lincoln, 
she  was  an  excellent  housewife,  had  a  good  judgment  of 
men  and  matters,  and  did  much  to  stimulate  Lincoln's 
ambition  in  his  political  career.  In  fact,  on  one  occa- 
sion she  intervened  when  an  offer  was  made  to  him 
of  a  Territorial  governorship,  which,  had  the  offer  been 
accepted  by  him,  would  have  led  to  his  being  side- 
tracked at  the  most  critical  period  of  his  career,  with 
the  consequent  loss  of  aU  prospects  of  fiUing  the  chief 
office  of  State.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that,  where 
his  political  Ufe  was  concerned,  her  advice  and  guidance 
were  of  great  value. 

It  may  be  added  that  there  is  no  question  but  that 
Mrs.  Lincoln  admired  and  appreciated  her  husband, 
how^ever  unsuccessful  she  may  have  been,  through  her 
own  faults  of  temper,  in  making  him  happy.  And  the 
husband,  however  distasteful  his  home  Hfe  may  have 
been  to  him,  appreciated  the  fact  that  the  frequent 
scenes  were  no  true  index  to  his  wife's  feelings  towards 
him.  The  home  situation,  however,  undoubtedly  con- 
tributed not  a  Uttle  to  deepen  Lincoln's  natural  melan- 
choly and  gloomy  outlook  on  life. 


Chapter  IV 

LEGAL   PRACTISE—LINCOLN  AS   MEMBER 

OF   CONGRESS 

Lincoln  was  now  no  longer  a  member  of  the  Illinois 
Legislature,  and  it  was  his  wife's  ambition  as  well  as 
his  own  that  he  should  become  a  member  of  Congress. 
There  w^ere,  however,  difficulties  in  the  way  of  his 
nomination.  Other  people  in  Illinois  had  claims  as 
well  as  himself.  Lincoln  belonged  to  the  old  Whig 
party,  to  which,  not  long  after,  the  Civil  War  gave  the 
coup  de  grace,  while  his  great  rival,  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
was  a  Democrat.  Among  the  Whigs  who  were  in  the 
running  against  him  in  Illinois  were  Baker  and  Hardin, 
two  prominent  local  politicians  of  the  day,  and  Lincoln 
was  annoyed  to  find  that  at  the  party  gathering  to 
settle  the  question  of  nomination  Baker  received  more 
support  than  himself,  apparently  owing  to  the  fact 
that  he  was  backed  by  the  various  local  religious  de- 
nominations, with  whom  Lincoln  was  by  no  means  in 
favor,  on  account  of  his  reputation  for  freethinking. 
It  became  accordingly  Lincoln's  duty  to  work  for 
Baker.     When,  however,  the  matter  came  before  the 

official   party   convention,    Hardin,    not   Baker,    was 

47 


48  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

chosen,  and  Lincoln,  sacrificing  his  own  interests,  felt 
it  his  duty  to  press  Baker's  claims  for  the  representation 
of  Illinois  at  the  subsequent  election  two  years  later. 
This  meant  Lincoln  himself  standing  aside  for  a  period 
of  four  years. 

It  was  not,  accordingly,  till  the  spring  of  1847  that 
he  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  The 
interval  was  devoted  tq  his  regular  law  practise.  In 
April,  1841,  Lincoln  had  retired  from  his  first  partner- 
ship with  Stuart  (who  had  been  elected  to  Congress), 
and  had  gone  into  partnership  with  Stephen  T.  Logan, 
who  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  being  the  best  nisi 
prius  lawyer  in  the  State  and  who  presented  in  every 
way  the  greatest  contrast  to  Lincoln,  being  orderly  and 
methodical,  and  having  a  very  intimate  grasp  of  the 
details  of  the  law.  These  qualities  were  undoubtedly 
very  helpful  to  Lincoln  in  his  partnership,  a  mastery^  of 
detail  never  being  one  of  his  strong  points,  while  his 
lack  of  order  and  method  hampered  him  throughout 
in  his  business,  and  to  some  extent  also  in  his  political 
career.  Logan,  however,  had  also  political  ambitions, 
and  they  clashed  with  those  of  Lincoln.  Apparently 
for  this  reason  the  partnership  was  severed,  and  Lincoln 
appealed  to  WiUiam  H.  Herndon  to  take  his  place. 
This  latter  partnership  was  continued  uninterrupted 
until  Lincoln's  death,  Herndon  carrying  on  the  busi- 
ness on  his  own  responsibility  during  Lincoln's  period 
of  office  as  President. 
Shortly  before  Lincoln's  election  to  Congress,  war 


Z 


"z 

o 
z 


LEGAL  PRACTISE  4g 

had  broken  out  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico, 
and  Lincoln,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  Whig 
party,  had  opposed  a  resort  to  extreme  measures. 
While  supporting  the  necessary  votes  of  credit  for 
carrying  on  the  war  with  energy  when  once  it  had 
broken  out,  Lincoln  made  no  concealment  of  his  own 
disapproval  of  the  whole  enterprise,  and  protested  that 
"the  war  was  unnecessarily  and  unconstitutionally  be- 
gun by  the  President."  The  strong  line  he  took  in  this 
matter  gave  offense  to  a  considerable  number  of  his 
constituents,  and  would  probably  have  led  to  his  defeat 
had  he  offered  himself  for  reelection  to  Congress.  It 
was  only  some  twenty  years  before  this  time  that 
Mexico  had  revolted  from  Spain,  and  seven  years  later 
the  province  of  Texas  had  in  its  turn  withdrawn  from 
the  Mexican  Republic. 

Texas  had  been  peopled  to  a  great  extent  by  immi- 
grants from  the  United  States,  and  a  petition  was  got 
up  by  an  influential  section  of  the  inhabitants  for 
annexation  to  the  American  Republic.  In  1845  an 
Annexation  Bill  was  pushed  through  at  the  expiration 
of  his  term  of  office  by  President  Tyler,  in  spite  of  Whig 
opposition.  Hereupon  Mexico,  which  had  throughout 
opposed  the  arrangement,  broke  off  diplomatic  rela- 
tions. There  was  a  dispute  about  the  exact  frontier  as 
between  Texas  and  Mexico.  Mexico  claimed  both 
banks  of  the  Rio  Grande,  which  the  American  Govern- 
ment maintained  should  be  the  border  of  the  respective 
territories.     The  new  President,  Polk,  ordered  General 


50  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Taylor  to  march  his  troops  up  the  banks  of  the  Rio 
Grande  and  occupy  a  position  commanding  the  encamp- 
ment of  the  Mexican  soldiers.  The  Mexican  general 
hereupon  attacked,  and  a  war  ensued  which  by  a  Uttle 
diplomacy  could  easily  have  been  prevented.  It  ap- 
peared that  the  American  President  had  acted  without 
justification,  and  that  he  was  anxious  to  provoke  war 
rather  than  to  avoid  it.  This  at  least  was  the  criticism 
leveled  against  him,  and  it  had  many  supporters  among 
the  American  pubUc.  The  military  success  of  the 
American  Army  soon,  however,  settled  the  questions 
at  issue.  General  Taylor  and  General  Scott  com- 
pletely defeated  the  Mexican  forces,  and  the  City  of 
Mexico  was  occupied  in  September,  1847. 

The  critics  of  the  war,  however  just  may  have  been 
their  contentions,  found  themselves  at  a  manifest  dis- 
advantage in  face  of  the  accomplished  fact;  and  as, 
in  the  words  of  the  proverb,  "Nothing  succeeds  hke 
success,"  the  anti-war  party  began  to  incur  no  little 
popular  hostiUty,  and  Lincoln,  who  never  compromised 
with  his  conscience  or  hesitated  to  speak  out  for  the 
cause  which  he  believed  to  be  right,  was  himself  one 
of  the  sufferers  from  this  wave  of  popular  feehng. 
Lincoln  took  up  the  position  that  the  President  had, 
in  effect,  by  his  instructions  to  General  Taylor,  himseK 
initiated  the  war,  and  that  this  was  directly  contrary 
to  constitutional  usage. 

Apart  from  the  matter  of  Mexico,  nothing  of  par- 
ticular importance  occurred  while  Lincoln  was  a  member 


LEGAL  PRACTISE  '  51 

of  Congress,  while  he  himself,  though  he  made  certain 
political  friendships  which  were  of  use  to  him  subse- 
quently, failed  to  make  any  special  mark  in  the  House 
of  Representatives.  As  evidence  of  his  interest  in  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  he  introduced  a  little  Bill  for  its 
gradual  and  compensated  extinction  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  having  previously  ascertained  that  the 
representative  people  of  the  district  approved  of  it; 
but  the  Bill  met  with  no  encouragement  from  either 
side.  On  Lincoln's  part  it  was  little  more  than  an 
advertisement  of  his  own  standpoint,  and  in  the  upshot 
was  not  prest  to  a  division.  As  already  stated,  he 
decided  not  to  offer  himself  for  reelection,  and  on  his 
retirement  received  an  offer  of  the  Governorship  of 
Oregon  Territory,  which,  personally,  he  felt  tempted  to 
accept.  Mrs.  Lincoln,  however,  reahzing  that  by  this 
act  he  would  cut  himself  off  from  political  life,  very 
wisely  induced  him  to  dechne  the  offer.  It  is  clear, 
however,  that  his  experience  at  Washington  had  proved 
a  disappointing  one  to  him,  and  for  some  time  after  he 
showed  a  disincHnation  to  take  any  active  or  prominent 
part  in  American  politics,  and  returned  once  more  to 
his  legal  pursuits. 

In  those  days,  in  the  Western  States,  courts  traveled 
in  circuits — a  practise  now  discontinued — and  each 
court  was  presided  over  by  a  judge  who  went  from  one 
county  town  to  another  to  hear  whatever  cases  were 
on  the  Ust.  Springfield  was  situated  in  the  Eighth 
Judicial  Circuit,  and  included  fifteen  counties  in  the 


52  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

central  part  of  Illinois.  There  being  no  railways  at 
that  time,  the  judge  traveled  on  horseback  or  in  a  car- 
riage, followed  by  the  lawyers.  The  meeting  of  the 
Supreme  Court  once  a  year  at  Springfield  was  a  great 
event,  and,  in  consequence,  attracted  large  numbers  of 
people  to  the  town. 

"When  the  county  town  was  reached  "  (says  William  Eleroy 
Curtis  ^),  "the  judge  was  given  the  best  room  at  the  hotel 
and  presided  at  the  dining-room  table,  surrounded  by  lawyers, 
jurors,  witnesses,  litigants,  prisoners  on  bail,  and  even  the 
men  who  drove  their  teams.  The  hotels  were  primitive  and 
limited,  and,  as  the  sitting  of  a  court  usually  attracted  all 
the  idle  men  in  the  vicinity,  the  landlords  were  taxed  to 
accommodate  their  guests,  and  packed  them  in  as  closely 
as  possible;  usually  two  in  a  bed  and  often  as  many  as  could 
find  room  on  the  floor.  The  to^vnspeople  made  the  semi- 
annual meeting  of  the  court  an  occasion  for  social  festivities, 
the  judge  being  the  guest  of  honor  at  dinners,  receptions, 
quiltings,  huskings,  weddings,  and  other  entertainments, 
while  the  lawyers  ranked  according  to  their  social  standing 
and  accomphshments. 

"In  some  of  the  towns  there  was  no  court-house,  and 
trials  were  held  in  a  church  or  a  school-house,  and  some- 
times, when  the  weather  was  favorable,  in  the  open  air." 

On  such  occasions  Lincoln  was  a  great  center  of  at- 
traction owing  to  his  well-known  reputation  as  a 
brilhant  story-teller.  In  one  instance,  indeed,  he 
seems  to  have  gone  too  far,  and  disturbed  the  hearing 
of  the  case  by  collecting  a  large  crowd  in  the  comer 

^  In  his  book,  "The  True  Abraham  Lincoln." 


LEGAL  PRACTISE  53 

of  the  court-room  to  listen  to  his  witty  stories. 
Anyhow,  the  presiding  judge  (Judge  Davis)  rapped  on 
the  bench  and,  calhng  him  by  name,  exclaimed: 
*'Mr.  Lincoln,  this  must  stop.  There  is  no  use  in 
trj^ing  to  carry  on  two  courts.  One  of  them  will  have 
to  adjourn,  and  I  think  yours  will  have  to  be  the  one.'* 
After  the  judicial  proceedings  were  over,  the  judge 
called  to  Lincoln  and  insisted  on  the  stories  that  caused 
so  much  merriment  being  repeated  to  him. 

Lawyers'  fees  in  those  days  were  very  low  compared 
with  what  they  became  later,  and  Lincoln  was  especiallj^ 
conscientious  in  his  refusal  to  charge  high  fees.  The 
account  book  of  Stuart  &  Lincoln  shows  that  the  fees 
charged  did  not  exceed  $1600  for  the  year,  and  were 
rarely  more  than  $10  for  a  case.  On  one  occasion, 
however,  Lincoln  presented  a  bill  for  two  thousand 
dollars,  in  an  important  case  in  which  he  appeared  for 
the  Ilhnois  Central  Railroad,  and  the  fee  was  com- 
plained of  as  excessive.  Having  withdrawn  the  original 
bill,  he  consulted  professional  friends,  and  later  on 
submitted  another  for  five  thousand  dollars  instead  of 
two,  with  a  memorandum  signed  by  six  of  the  most 
prominent  lawyers  in  the  State,  giving  their  opinion 
that  the  fee  was  not  unreasonable.  The  company  still 
refused  to  pay,  and  Lincoln  sued  and  recovered  the  full 
amount.  The  case  arose  from  the  fact  that  the  Illinois 
Railroad  was  exempt  from  taxation  by  its  charter,  con- 
ditional on  its  paying  into  the  State  Treasury  7  per  cent, 
of  its  gross  earnings.     The  officials  of  M'Lean  County 


54  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

disputed  this  right,  and  contended  that  the  Legislature 
of  the  State  had  no  authority  to  exempt  or  remit  county 
taxes.  They  brought  a  suit  to  compel  payment,  and 
Lincoln  defended  and  won  the  case.  On  the  matter  of 
fees  Lincoln  wrote:  "An  exorbitant  fee  should  never 
be  claimed.  As  a  general  rule,  never  take  your  whole 
fee  in  advance,  or  any  more  than  a  small  retainer. 
When  fully  paid  beforehand,  you  are  more  than  a  com- 
mon mortal  if  you  can  feel  the  same  interest  in  the  case 
as  if  something  was  still  in  prospect  for  you  as  well  as 
for  your  client." 

On  one  occasion  Lincoln  secured  the  acquittal  of  an 
old  neighbor,  named  Duff  Armstrong,  on  a  charge  of 
murder.  Several  mtnesses  testified  that  they  saw  the 
accused  commit  the  deed  one  night  about  eleven 
o'clock.  Lincoln  induced  the  witnesses  to  amplify 
their  statements,  and  particularly  the  assertion  that 
they  had  seen  the  act  distinctly  on  account  of  the  bright 
moonhght.  By  cross-examining  still  further  he  was 
able  to  prove  the  exact  position  and  size  of  the  moon 
at  the  time  of  the  murder.  Lincoln  finally  announced 
that  he  had  no  defense  to  submit  except  an  almanac, 
which  showed  that  there  was  no  moon  visible  on  that 
particular  night!  Needless  to  say,  the  accused  got  off, 
and  in  addition  all  the  witnesses  were  impeached  and 
convicted  of  perjury. 

Lincoln  had  a  habit  of  studying  the  opposite  side  of 
every  disputed  question  in  every  law  case  or  political 
issue,  no  less  carefully  than  his  own  side.     In  con- 


LEGAL  PRACTISE  65 

sequence  he  was  never  surprised  by  the  strength  of  the 
arguments  of  his  opponent.  His  habit  was  almost  in- 
variably to  brush  aside  the  less  important  points  in  a 
case  and  go  for  the  essential  issue.  Said  Justice  Davis 
with  regard  to  him:  "He  seized  the  strong  points  of  a 
case  and  presented  them  with  clearness  and  great  com- 
pactness. His  mind  was  logical  and  direct,  and  he  did 
not  indulge  in  superfluous  discussion.  An  unfailing 
fund  of  humor  never  deserted  him,  and  he  w^as  able  to 
claim  the  attention  of  court  and  jury  when  the  cause 
was  most  uninteresting  by  the  appropriateness  of  his 
anecdotes.  The  framework  of  his  mental  and  moral 
being  was  honesty,  and  a  wrong  cause  was  poorly  de- 
fended by  him.''  Conscious  of  his  own  weakness  in 
defending  a  bad  case,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  persuading 
his  clients  to  give  up  htigation  in  such  instances,  even 
when  he  felt  that  he  could  probably  win  the  case. 
Leonard  Swett,  of  Chicago,  a  lawyer  who  became 
widely  known  in  America,  states  that  sometimes  after 
Lincoln  entered  upon  a  criminal  case  the  conviction 
that  his  chent  was  guilty  would  affect  him  with  a  sort  of 
panic.  On  one  occasion  he  turned  suddenly  to  his  asso- 
ciate, and  said :  "  Swett,  the  man  is  guilty.  You  defend 
him,  I  cannot,''  thus  giving  up  his  share  of  a  large  fee. 
The  business  of  Lincoln  &  Herndon  was  carried  on 
in  a  primitive  sort  of  way.  They  kept  no  books,  and 
divided  their  fees.  Sometimes  w^hen  Herndon  was 
away  Lincoln  w^ould  wrap  up  his  share  of  a  fee  in  a 
piece  of  paper  and  place  it  in  his  drawer,  marking  it 


56  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

with  a  pencil,  ''Case  of  Roe  v.  Doe — Herndon's  half." 
In  the  Illinois  Railroad  case  above  alluded  to,  when 
the  fee  for  $5000  was  eventually  paid  up,  Lincoln 
came  in  and  said:  ''Well,  Billy!"  (his  usual  manner  of 
addressing  his  partner),  "here's  our  fee.  Sit  down  and 
let  me  divide."  Lincoln  had  the  habit  of  keeping  docu- 
ments that  he  had  in  hand  at  the  moment  in  the  Hning 
of  his  silk  hat,  which  was  generally  speaking  of  a  some- 
what antiquated  type.  On  one  occasion,  however,  he 
had  purchased  a  new  one,  and  this  led  to  some  confu- 
sion, as  important  papers  v/ere  left  behind  in  its 
predecessor.  In  a  letter  to  a  fellow-lawyer  in  another 
town  on  this  occasion,  apologizing  for  his  failure  to 
reply  sooner,  Lincoln  wrote:  "First,  I  have  been  very 
busy  in  the  United  States  Court.  Second,  when  I 
received  the  letter,  I  put  it  in  my  old  hat,  and,  buying 
a  new  one  the  next  day,  the  old  one  w^as  set  aside,  and 
so  the  letter  was  lost  sight  of  for  a  time."  These  are 
not  the  sort  of  details  that  one  usually  gives  to  one's 
business  correspondent,  but  that  made  no  difference 
to  Lincoln,  who  was  throughout  his  hfe  the  most  un- 
conventional of  men. 

Lincoln's  knowledge  of  the  technicalities  of  the  law 
was  never  his  strong  point,  and  he  was  hable  to  lose  cases 
which  turned  on  legal  technicahties  rather  than  on 
abstract  justice  or  common  sense.  His  mind  was 
one  that  worked  slowly,  and  required  fuU  time  for 
preparation  and  to  "get  the  hang^'  of  a  case.  He  suf- 
fered, too,  through  his  lack  of  method,  but  no  one  was 


LEGAL  PRACTISE  57 

better  in  getting  and  holding  the  ear  of  a  jury.  The 
law,  however,  was  always  the  second  string  to  Lincoln's 
bow,  and  as  far  as  his  own  incHnation  w^as  concerned 
he  looked  upon  it  rather  as  a  means  to  an  end,  even 
though,  for  several  years  of  his  life,  it  seemed  that  the 
end  he  had  in  view  might  have  to  be  abandoned.  In 
spite,  however,  of  this  interlude,  Lincoln  persistently 
kept  in  touch  with  the  political  world.  Pohtics  was 
his  first  and  last  love,  and  the  time  was  now  about  to 
arrive  when  pohtics  was  destined  once  more  to  claim 
his  entire  energies. 


Chapter  V 

THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

It  is  quite  an  open  question  whether  Lincohi  would 
ever  have  figured  prominently  again  in  American 
poUtical  Hfe,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  revival  in  an 
acute  form  of  the  dispute  between  North  and  South 
with  reference  to  the  question  of  the  extension  of 
slavery  in  the  American  Territories.  In  order  to  un- 
derstand the  position  that  this  question  occupied  in 
American  politics,  it  will  be  necessary  to  take  a  brief 
survey  of  the  history  of  the  subject  in  its  earher  stages. 
The  original  founders  of  the  American  Common- 
wealth were  generally  speaking  opposed  to  slavery  and 
anxious  to  secure  its  abolition.  Among  these  may  be 
included  the  first  four  Presidents  of  the  Union:  Wash- 
ington, Adams,  Jefferson,  and  Madison.  The  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  contained  its  impHcit  repudiation. 
Before  the  breach  with  the  mother  country,  several  of 
the  American  Colonies  had  desired  to  suppress  it,  but 
the  British  Government  of  the  day  had  intervened. 
In  1774  a  convention  of  all  the  colonies  voted  "that  the 
aboKtion  of  domestic  slavery  is  the  greatest  object  of 

desire  in  these  colonies,  where  it  was  unhappily  intro- 

58 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  59 

duced  in  their  infant  state.  But  previous  to  the  en- 
franchisement of  the  slaves  in  law,  it  is  necessary  to 
exclude  all  further  importation  from  Africa."  Jefferson 
especially  was  untiring  in  his  efforts  to  put  a  stop  to  the  in- 
stitution. *'  I  tremble  for  my  countiy,"  he  wrote,  "when 
I  think  of  the  negro,  and  remember  that  God  is  just." 
In  1784  the  North- West  Territory  was  ceded  by 
Virginia  to  the  pre-Union  Congress.  When  this  was 
done,  Jefferson  succeeded  in  securing  the  passing  of  an 
ordinance  by  which  slavery  was  excluded  from  the  soil 
of  this  Territory  and  the  States  into  which  this  was 
subsequently  broken  up,  i.e.,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Michigan,  and  Wisconsin,  which  thus  became,  ipso 
facto,  free  States.  The  slave-trade  from  Africa  was 
abohshed  by  Congress  on  1st  January,  1808.  Seven 
of  the  original  thirteen  States  of  the  Union,  and  also 
Vermont,  the  fourteenth  State,  had  abohshed  slavery 
by  1805.  It  wiU  be  seen,  therefore,  that  in  the  early 
days  of  the  Union  slavery  to  all  appearance  was  in  a 
fair  way  of  gradual  extinction.  The  value,  however, 
of  slave  labor  for  the  cotton  industry,  which  made  rapid 
strides  about  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  led  to 
a  serious  setback  to  the  Emancipation  Movement, 
and  greatly  increased  the  favor  with  which  slavery  was 
regarded  in  the  Southern  States,  where  this  industry- 
was  predominant.  In  consequence,  the  strong  support 
of  the  North  to  measures  favorable  to  its  extinction 
was  counteracted  by  the  interest  of  the  South  in  its 
perpetuation. 


CO  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

In  1820  the  dispute  between  North  and  South  over 
this  matter  reached  a  crisis.  It  was  a  question  of  the 
admission  to  the  Union  of  the  new  State  of  Missouri, 
which  had  been  carved  out  of  the  French  territory 
purchased  from  Napoleon.  The  Northern  senators 
and  members  of  Congress  demanded,  in  framing  the 
new  Constitution,  that  it  should  provide  for  the  gradual 
extinction  of  slavery  in  the  State.  The  representatives 
of  the  South  were  determined  that  slavery  should  be 
allowed.  Assisted  by  the  votes  of  several  of  the 
Northern  members,  they  succeeded  in  carrying  their 
point.  Missouri  was  accordingly  admitted  to  the 
Union  as  a  slave  State,  while  Maine  was  admitted 
about  the  same  time  as  a  free  State,  thus  counterbalan- 
cing the  gain  of  the  South.  It  was,  however,  felt  neces- 
sary that  disputes  of  the  kind  should  be  avoided  in 
future,  and  accordingly  what  was  termed  the  Missouri 
Compromise  was  arrived  at.  By  this  agreement  it  was 
enacted  that  ever  after  slavery  should  be  unlawful 
north  of  lat.  36°  30'  and  lawful  south  of  it.  While 
this  was  on  the  face  of  it  a  concession  to  the  slave- 
owning  States,  it  was,  on  the  other  hand,  a  guarantee 
to  the  opponents  of  slavery  that  all  States  subse- 
quently formed  north  of  the  latitude  in  question  should 
have  free  constitutions.  It  was  hoped  on  both  sides 
that  the  Compromise  would  prevent  the  slavery  ques- 
tion from  ever  again  threatening  the  Union  with 
possible  disruption.  For  thirty-four  years  this  com- 
pact was  observed.     The  rescinding  of  it  in  1854  at  the 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  61 

instance  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas  proved  to  be  the  turn- 
ing-point of  Lincoln's  career,  and  led  within  seven 
years  to  the  outbreak  of  the  American  Civil  War. 

The  occasion  of  this  momentous  repeal  was  a  Bill 
which  dealt  with  the  government  of  Kansas  and  Ne- 
braska, and  their  admission  as  States  to  the  Union. 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  moved  that  the  people  of  these 
States  should  be  empowered  to  decide  for  themselves 
whether  they  would  allow  slavery  or  not.  As  this  was 
contrary  to  the  terms  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  it 
involved  the  Bill  repealing  this  in  set  form.  As  the 
Compromise  in  question  had  come  to  be  regarded, 
at  least  in  the  North,  as  one  of  the  pillars  of  the  Con- 
stitution, the  motion  naturally  created  extraordinary- 
excitement.  Douglas,  however,  was  successful  in 
carrying  his  point,  and  President  Pierce  offered  no 
opposition.  Douglas  had  always  taken  up  the  position 
that  in  the  matter  of  slavery  he  was  frankly  indifferent. 
He  had  said  on  one  occasion  that  in  any  question  be- 
tween white  men  and  negroes  he  was  on  the  side  of  the 
white  men,  and  on  any  question  between  negroes  and 
crocodiles  he  was  on  the  side  of  the  negroes. 

One  result  of  the  passing  of  this  Bill  was  a  struggle 
between  the  contending  parties  to  win  Kansas  for 
slavery  or  for  freedom.  It  soon  appeared,  however, 
to  the  intense  annoyance  of  the  defenders  of  slavery, 
that  the  party  of  freedom  in  this  State  would  win 
hands  down.  In  spite  of  this,  an  attempt  was  actually 
made  to  impose  the  slave  system  on  Kansas  against 


62  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  will  of  the  majority.  This,  however,  was  defeated, 
and  indeed  Douglas  himself  revolted  against  this  open 
defiance  of  the  principle  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
people,  which  he  had  defended  as  the  justification  for 
the  attitude  he  had  adopted  in  his  Bill. 

A  further  consequence  of  the  passing  of  this  measure 
was  the  disruption  of  the  old  Whig  party,  to  which 
Lincoln  had  so  far  belonged.  The  poHtical  struggle 
was  obviously  now  between  those  who  were  in  favor  of 
the  extension  of  slavery  in  the  States,  and  those  who 
were  determined  to  prevent  any  such  extension.  The 
Whig  party  had  throughout  been  a  party  of  compro- 
mise, and  had  never  taken  any  firm  line  in  the  matter, 
though  anxious  as  far  as  might  be  to  prevent  slavery 
getting  the  upper  hand.  It  was  obvious  that  a  party 
holding  such  indefinite  views  on  the  great  question  of 
the  day  had  no  chance  of  any  strong  popular  support 
either  from  one  side  or  the  other.  The  majority  of  the 
Democrats  were  prepared  to  indorse  the  views  of  the 
population  of  the  slave  States,  from  which  they  were  in 
the  main  recruited.  There  was,  however,  a  consider- 
able section  of  this  party  which  revolted  from  it  when 
it  became  manifest  that  it  was  likely  to  be  identified 
definitely  with  pro-slavery  opinions.  Accordingly  it 
became  necessary  to  found  a  new  party  which  should 
stand  for  the  restriction  of  slavery  and  its  gradual 
abohtion.  Thus  arose  the  great  RepubHcan  party, 
which  from  that  day  to  this  has  remained  one  of  the 
two  political  parties  of  the  Union.    The  party  in 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  63 

question  was  recruited  in  the  main  from  those  of  the 
old  Whig  party  who  felt  that  the  Whigs  had  not  taken 
a  strong  enough  line  on  the  question  at  issue.  It  also 
had  the  support  of  the  revolting  Northern  Democrats. 
When  in  1854  Lincoln  returned  to  political  life  it  was 
as  one  of  the  founders  of  this  new  party. 

Stephen  A.  Douglas  in  the  autumn  of  1854  came  to 
Springfield  to  attend  the  State  Agricultural  Fair,  and, 
in  view  of  his  prominent  position  in  political  life  and  his 
standing  as  United  States  Senator,  he  was  made  the 
lion  of  the  occasion.  He  availed  himself  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  make  a  speech  justifjdng  the  action  of  Con- 
gress in  connection  with  the  Bill  which  involved  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Lincoln  about  the 
same  time  had  taken  the  field  on  behalf  of  Richard 
Yates,  who  was  then  standing  for  Congress.  The 
opponents  of  the  appeal  called  upon  Lincoln  to  reply 
to  Douglas.  He  did  this  in  a  speech  in  which  he  w^as 
successful  in  carrying  almost  his  entire  audience  with 
him.  Douglas  himself  was  present,  and  rose  to  his 
feet  on  several  occasions  to  reply  to  Lincoln's  criticisms 
and  arguments.  He  found  these  so  difficult  to  deal 
with  that  he  finally  asked  for  permission  to  reply  in 
a  set  speech.  Twelve  days  later  Lincoln  and  Douglas 
met  by  arrangement  on  the  same  platform  at  Peoria, 
Lincoln  allowing  Douglas  to  make  the  first  and  closing 
speeches,  while  he  himself  merely  claimed  the  right  of 
replying  to  his  first  address.  This  speech  again 
created  an  immense  impression,  and  accentuated  the 


64  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

rivalry  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  who  it  was 
understood  would  shortly  be  contesting  a  seat  in  the 
United  States  Senate  on  behalf  of  the  Democratic  and 
Republican  parties,  respectively.  Writing  of  this 
speech  of  Lincoln's,  Horace  White,  afterwards  editor  of 
the  New  York  Evening  Post,  who  was  present  on  the 
occasion,  said: — 

"I  was  then  in  the  employ  of  the  Chicago  Evening  Journal. 
I  had  been  sent  to  Springfield  to  report  the  political  doings 
of  State  Fair  Week  for  that  paper.  Thus  it  came  about  that 
I  occupied  a  front  seat  in  the  Representatives'  Hall  when 
Mr.  Lincoln  delivered  the  speech  in  question.  The  impres- 
sion made  upon  me  by  the  orator  was  quite  overpowering. 
I  had  not  heard  much  political  speaking  up  to  that  time.  I 
have  heard  a  great  deal  since.  I  have  never  heard  anything 
since,  either  by  Mr.  Lincoln  or  by  anybody,  that  I  would 
put  on  a  higher  plane  of  oratory.  All  the  strings  that  play 
upon  the  human  heart  and  understanding  were  touched  wdth 
masterly  skill  and  force,  w^hile  bej^ond  and  above  all  skill 
was  the  overwhelming  conviction  pressed  upon  the  audience 
that  the  speaker  himself  was  charged  with  an  irresistible 
and  inspiring  duty  to  his  fellow-men.  Having  since  then 
heard  all  the  great  speakers  of  the  country,  I  award  the 
palm  to  Mr.  Lincoln  as  the  one  who,  altho  not  first  in  all 
respects,  would  bring  more  men  of  doubtful  or  hostile  lean- 
ings around  to  his  way  of  thinking,  by  talking  to  them  on  a 
platform,  than  any  other." 

Stephen  A.  Douglas,  who  at  this  time  was  Lincoln's 
great  rival,  had  risen  from  as  humble  circumstances  as 
Lincoln  himself;  but  in  the  first  instance  his  progress 
in  the  political  world  had  been  far  more  rapid  than 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  65 

that  of  his  opponent.  As  a  youth  he  was  apprenticed 
to  a  cabinet-maker  in  Vermont,  and  had  studied  law 
under  similar  difficulties  and  disadvantages  to  the 
future  President.  His  ready  wit  and  remarkable  ap- 
titude, however,  quickly  overcame  these,  and  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-one. 
Then,  coming  to  Springfield  with  nothing  but  his 
talents  and  his  addiess  to  his  credit,  and  without 
poUtical  support,  in  spite  of  these  drawbacks  he 
successfully  contested  for  the  office  of  State  Attorney 
with  John  J.  Hardin,  one  of  the  most  successful  law- 
yers of  the  State.  Shortly  after  this  he  was  elected  to 
the  Legislature  on  the  Democratic  side.  In  1837  he 
obtained  from  President  Van  Buren  the  appointment 
of  Registrar  of  the  Pubhc  Land  Office,  and  settled 
definitely  at  Springfield.  The  same  year  he  was 
nominated  for  Congress  in  opposition  to  John  T. 
Stuart,  Lincoln's  first  law  partner,  who  defeated  him 
on  this  occasion  by  fourteen  votes. 

No  two  men  could  have  offered  a  greater  contrast 
than  Douglas  and  Lincoln.  Douglas  was  short  and 
square  built,  possessed  an  attractive  and  ingratiating 
manner,  and  a  personal  magnetism  which  has  been 
described  as  almost  irresistible.  His  voice  was  rich  and 
remarkable  for  its  compass.  His  skill  as  an  orator  and 
debater  was  unrivaled.  He  was  self-reliant  and 
troubled  by  few  pohtical  scruples.  Lincoln  was  more 
than  a  foot  taller  than  his  rival.  He  was  ungainly 
and  awkward.    His  voice  when  first  he  began  to  speak 


66  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

was  harsh  and  shrill,  and  he  had  none  of  the  qualities 
which  tend  to  general  popularity  and  social  favor. 
But  he  impressed  all  who  heard  him  speak  by  his 
honesty  of  purpose  and  the  depth  and  sincerity  of  his 
political  convictions.  While  Douglas  was  by  far  the 
more  plausible  of  the  two  in  his  style  of  oratory,  and 
electrified  his  hearers  with  his  eloquence,  Lincoln  con- 
vinced his  audience  by  the  sheer  force  of  logic.  Lin- 
coln's style  of  speaking  and  the  peculiarities  of  his  de- 
livery, as  contrasted  with  those  of  Douglas,  were 
thus  described  by  one  of  his  political  friends: — 

''When  standing  erect  he  was  six  feet  four  inches  high. 
He  was  lean  in  flesh  and  ungainly  in  figure;  thin  through  the 
chest,  and  hence  slightly  stoop-shouldered.  When  he  arose 
to  address  courts,  juries  or  crowds  of  people  his  body  inclined 
fonvard  to  a  slight  degree.  At  first  he  was  very  awkward, 
and  it  seemed  a  real  labor  to  adjust  himself  to  the  surround- 
ings. He  struggled  for  a  time  under  a  feeling  of  apparent 
diffidence  and  sensitiveness  and  these  only  added  to  his 
awkwardness.  When  he  began  speaking  his  voice  was  shrill, 
piping,  and  unpleasant.  His  manner,  his  attitude,  his  dark, 
yellow  face  wrinkled  and  dry,  his  oddity  of  pose,  his  diffident 
movements — everything  seemed  to  be  against  him;  but  only 
for  a  short  time.  After  having  arisen,  he  generally  placed 
his  ha.ids  behind  him,  the  back  of  his  left  hand  in  the  palm  of 
his  right,  the  thumb  and  fingers  of  his  right  hand  clasped 
around  the  left  arm  at  the  wrist.  For  a  few  moments  he 
played  the  combination  of  awkwardness,  sensitiveness,  and 
diffidence.  As  he  proceeded  he  became  somewhat  animated, 
and  to  keep  in  harmony  with  his  growing  warmth  his  hands 
relaxed  their  grasp  and  fell  to  his  side.  Presently  he  clasped 
them  in  front  of  him,  interlockhig  his  fingers,  one  thumb 


THE  REPUBLICAN   PARTY  67 

meanwhile  chasing  the  other.  His  speech  now  requiring 
more  emphatic  utterance,  his  fingers  unlocked  and  his  hands 
fell  apart.  His  left  arm  was  thrown  behind,  the  back  of 
his  hand  resting  against  his  body,  his  right  hand  seeking 
his  side.  By  this  time  he  had  gained  sufficient  composure, 
and  his  real  speech  began.  He  did  not  gesticulate  as  much 
with  his  hands  as  he  did  with  his  head.  He  used  the  latter 
frequently,  throwing  it  with  vim  this  way  and  that.  This 
movement  was  a  significant  one  when  he  sought  to  enforce 
his  statement.  It  sometimes  came  with  a  quick  jerk,  as  if 
throwing  off  electric  sparks  into  combustible  material.  He 
never  sawed  the  air  nor  rent  space  into  tatters  and  rags,  as 
some  orators  do.  He  never  acted  for  stage  effect.  He  was 
cool,  considerate,  reflective — in  time  self-possessed  and  self- 
reliant.  His  style  was  clear,  terse,  and  compact.  In  argu- 
ment he  was  logical,  demonstrative,  and  fair.  He  was  care- 
less of  his  dress,  and  his  clothes,  instead  of  fitting,  as  did  the 
garments  of  Douglas  on  the  latter's  well-rounded  form,  hung 
loosely  on  his  huge  frame." 

What  was  practically  the  olBGlcial  inauguration  of  the 
new  Republican  party  took  place  at  Bloomington, 
Illinois,  in  the  spring  of  1856.  This  Bloomington  Con- 
vention has  always  been  remembered  as  the  occasion 
of  what  is  usually  termed  "Lincoln's  lost  speech." 

"The  Convention"  (says  WilHam  Elero}^  Curtis),  "which 
was  composed  of  former  members  of  all  political  parties, 
had  adopted  the  name  Republican,  had  taken  extreme 
grounds  against  slavery,  and  had  launched  a  new  pchtical 
organization;  but  it  contained  many  discordant,  envious, 
and  hostile  elements.  Those  who  had  watched  the  pro- 
ceedings were  anxious  and  apprehensive  of  dissension  and 
jealous}'",  and  Lincoln,  with  his  acute  political  perceptions. 


68  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

realized  the  danger,  perhaps,  more  keenly  than  any  other 
man  in  the  assembly.  He  saw  before  him  a  group  of  earnest, 
zealous,  sincere  men,  willing  to  make  tremendous  sacrifices 
and  undertake  titanic  tasks,  but  at  the  same  time  most  of 
them  clung  to  their  own  theories  and  advocated  their  in- 
di^ddual  methods  with  a  tenacity  that  promised  to  defeat 
their  common  purpose.  Therefore,  when  he  arose  in  response 
to  the  unanimous  demand  for  a  speech  from  the  great  orator 
of  Springfield,  his  soul  was  flooded  with  a  desire  and  a  pur- 
pose to  harmonize  and  amalgamate  the  patriotic  emotions  of 
his  associates.  He  realized  that  it  was  a  crisis  in  the  history 
of  his  country,  and  rose  to  the  full  height  of  the  occasion. 

"Those  who  were  present  say  that  at  first  he  spoke  slowly, 
cautiously,  and  in  a  monotone;  but  gradually  his  words 
grew  in  force  and  intensity  until  he  swept  the  discordant 
souls  of  the  assembly  together  and  his  hearers  'arose  from 
their  chairs  with  pale  faces  and  quivering  lips  and  pressed 
unconsciously  towards  him.'  His  influence  was  irresistible. 
Even  the  trained  reporters,  accustomed  to  witness  the  most 
touching  and  impressive  scenes  with  the  indifference  of  their 
profession,  dropped  their  pencils,  and  what  was  perhaps  the 
greatest  speech  of  Lincoln's  entire  career  was  unreported." 

Hence  the  speech  became  popularly  known  as  "Lin- 
coln's lost  speech,"  and  no  record  was  kept  of  words 
that  had  the  effect  of  electrifying  a  political  audience 
in  a  manner  in  which  no  audience  of  the  kind  has  ever, 
perhaps,  been  carried  away  before  or  since.  Frag- 
ments of  the  speech  were  quoted  from  memory  by  his 
hearers,  but  Lincoln  himself,  though  constantly  ap- 
pealed to  by  numerous  newspapers  to  reproduce  his 
words,  declared  his  inability  to  do  so.  Joseph  Medill, 
subsequently  editor  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  narrates 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  69 

how  he  took  up  his  pencil  in  the  ordinary  way  to  take 
shorthand  notes  of  the  speech,  but  completely  forgot 
himself  after  the  first  ten  minutes,  so  entirely  was  he 
absorbed  by  the  magnetic  oratory  of  the  speaker. 
He  states  how,  walking  out  of  the  room  in  a  sort  of 
hypnotic  trance,  after  Lincoln  had  sat  down,  it  sud- 
denly flashed  through  his  mind  that  he  had  no  report 
to  hand  to  the  Tribune.  His  feeling  of  dismay,  how- 
ever, at  this  occurrence  was  somewhat  mitigated  when 
he  discovered  that  all  the  other  newspaper  men  present 
were  in  the  same  predicament,  the  excitement  having 
carried  away  the  entire  audience,  including  the  re- 
porters themselves. 

It  was  in  the  Presidential  contest  of  this  year  (1856) 
that  the  first  trial  of  strength  took  place  between  the 
new  Republicans  and  the  Democratic  party,  which  had 
hitherto  been  opposed  to  the  old  Whigs.  The  Re- 
pubhcans  chose  as  their  candidate  General  Fremont, 
a  Southerner  of  French  origin,  who,  because  of  his 
exploration  in  the  Far  West,  was  known  as  "The 
Pathfinder,"  while  the  Democratic  candidate  was 
James  Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania,  a  man  more  noted 
for  his  respectabihty  than  for  more  positive  virtues. 
Altho  Buchanan  was  elected,  the  show  made  by  the 
RepubHcans  at  the  polls  was  far  better  than  they  had 
anticipated,  and  the  result  seemed  to  encourage  their 
hopes  that  at  the  next  election  they  might  carry  their 
own  nominee.  Things,  however,  did  not  in  all  direc- 
tions run  smoothly  for  the  new  party.     In  1857  the 


70  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

celebrated  Dred  Scott  case  came  to  a  head,  and  the 
ruling  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  this  notable  trial  proved 
a  severe  blow  to  the  prospects  of  the  Republicans. 

Dred  Scott  was  a  negro  who,  before  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  had  been  taken  by  his  master 
into  Nebraska.  Hence  he  claimed  that  by  virtue  of 
this  agreement  he  became,  ipso  facto,  a  free  man. 
If  so,  he  was  entitled  to  sue  his  master  in  a  Federal 
Court,  as  he  was  in  that  case  a  citizen  of  Missouri. 
The  question  for  the  Supreme  Court  to  decide  was, 
therefore,  whether  Dred  Scott  was  a  citizen.  The 
subsidiary  question  was  necessarily  raised — whether 
Dred  Scott  was  a  free  man.  The  judgment  was  pro- 
nounced by  Chief  Justice  Roger  Taney,  and  concurred 
in  by  a  majority  of  the  justices  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  five  of  his  colleagues  concurring 
and  two  only  dissenting.  The  pronouncement  amounted 
to  a  decision  that  Dred  Scott  was  not  a  citizen,  and 
went  on  to  state  that  he  also  was  not  free,  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  had  all  along 
been  unconstitutional  and  void,  the  exclusion  of  slavery 
from  any  portion  of  the  Territories  being  contrary  to 
the  established  Constitution  of  the  American  Common- 
wealth. 

The  question  that  arose  was  the  intention  of  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  and  the  authors  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Judge  Taney  laid  it 
down  that  these  men  had  hardly  counted  negroes  as 
human  at  all,  and  used  words  such  as  "men,*'    "per- 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  71 

sons,"  "citizens"  in  a  sense  which  necessarily  excluded 
the  negro.  The  fact  is,  however,  that  the  Constitution 
in  question  was  formulated  by  a  number  of  States, 
in  some  of  which  negroes  w^ere  actually  at  that  time 
exercising  the  full  rights  of  citizens.  All  the  earlier 
Presidents  of  the  United  States  had  acted  on  the  behef 
that  Congress  had  the  power  to  allow  or  forbid  slavery 
in  the  Territories,  and  the  point  had  been  universally 
recognized  and  admitted  throughout  the  history  of  the 
American  Republic  until  Calhoun  first  disputed  it 
some  eight  or  ten  years  previously,  in  his  defense  of 
slavery  in  Southern  States.  Justices  M'Lean  and 
Curtis  put  forward  arguments  in  opposition  to  those 
of  the  Chief  Justice,  and  the  majority  of  the  American 
legal  profession  were  disposed  to  call  in  question  the 
legaUty  of  this  memorable  decision.  In  spite  of  this, 
the  judgment  of  the  Supreme  Court  could  not  Hghtly 
be  set  aside,  and  the  Republicans,  who  had  based  their 
program  on  their  constitutional  position,  were,  for  the 
time  being,  thrown  into  much  confusion  and  em- 
barrassment. 

In  1856,  and  again  in  1858,  Lincoln  became  Sena- 
torial candidate  for  the  State  of  Illinois.  American 
Senators  are  elected  by  the  Legislatures  of  their  States, 
and  a  Senator  to  be  elected  must  have  an  absolute 
majority.  Thus  the  name  that  heads  the  poll  at  the 
first  ballot  is  not  necessarily  the  one  elected.  In  the 
election  for  1856  Lincoln  headed  the  first  baUot,  but 
he  soon  realized  that  unless  his  friends  transferred  their 


72  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

votes  to  Lyman  Trumbull,  a  Democrat,  who,  however, 
was  also  a  sound  opponent  of  slavery,  a  supporter  of 
Douglas  would  probably  win  the  election.  Sacrificing, 
therefore,  his  own  personal  interests,  he  induced  his 
friends  to  vote  for  Trumbull  and  thus  secure  his  abso- 
lute majority.  When  a  Senatorial  vacancy  again  oc- 
curred two  years  later,  Douglas  himself  became  the 
candidate  of  the  Democrats,  and  Lincoln  was  at  once 
recognized  as  his  only  possible  opponent.  The  strug- 
gle between  these  two  men  for  the  Senatorial  vacancy 
in  IlHnois  was  destined  to  prove  of  historical  impor- 
tance. The  question  that  was  at  issue  in  connection 
with  it  was  whether  the  institution  of  slavery  was  to  be 
tolerated  beyond  its  present  limits,  or  whether  it  was 
to  be  left  simply  for  the  voters  of  each  new  State  to 
determine  as  they  thought  fit.  Lincoln,  while  recog- 
nizing that  slavery  must  be  tolerated  in  the  present 
existing  Slave  States,  from  the  necessities  of  the 
Union,  was  resolute  against  its  extension,  and  was 
equally  resolute  in  the  attitude  he  maintained  that 
slavery,  whenever  or  however  tolerated  under  stress  of 
circumstances,  must  be  recognized  as  a  violation  of 
eternal  right.  "We  have  temporized  with  it,"  he  said 
in  one  of  his  speeches,  ''from  the  necessities  of  our 
condition;  but  as  sure  as  God  reigns,  and  school 
children  read,  that  black,  foul  lie  can  never  be  con- 
summated into  God's  hallowed  truth." 

A  further  question,  destined  shortly  after  to  assume 
an  even  more  prominent  position  than  the  question  of 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  73 

slavery,  was  now  becoming  mixed  up  with  this  issue. 
If  slavery  were  to  be  placed  under  a  sort  of  interdict, 
even  though  tacitly  permitted  in  certain  States  of  the 
Union,  what  attitude  would  these  same  Slave  States 
take  up?  Would  they  consent  to  remain  within  the 
four  corners  of  the  Union  under  such  circumstances? 
This  doubt  was  raised  in  the  minds  of  many  whose 
hostility  to  slavery  from  conscientious  motives  was 
beyond  dispute,  but  who  dreaded,  before  all  else,  to 
see  a  break-up  of  the  Union.  There  were  not  a  few, 
accordingly,  whose  natural  sympathies  were  with 
Lincoln,  who  yet  preferred  to  side  with  Douglas  and 
the  party  of  indifference,  rather  than  run  so  grave  a 
risk  to  the  integrity  of  the  Commonwealth.  It  was 
Lincoln^s  great  distinction  that  he  was  throughout 
absolutely  opposed  to  any  compromise  or  tampering 
with  the  great  principle  involved.  The  central  idea  of 
the  founders  of  the  Union  was,  he  maintained,  the 
equality  of  man,  and  a  steady  approximation  to  this, 
as  far  as  circumstances  and  conditions  would  allow, 
was  the  basis  and  corner-stone  of  the  American 
Constitution. 

Lincoln  had  to  contend  against  a  natural  prejudice, 
*'a  natural  disgust,"  as  he  termed  it,  "in  the  minds  of 
nearly  all  white  people  at  the  idea  of  an  indiscriminate 
amalgamation  of  the  white  and  black  men."  His  op- 
ponents were  constantly  urging  that  the  logical  out- 
come of  his  principles  would  be  the  encouragement  of 
mixed  marriages  between  the  two  races.     Lincoln  lost 


74  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

no  opportunity  of  attacking  this  line  of  argument.  ''  I 
protest,"  he  said,  "against  the  counterfeit  logic  which 
says  that  since  I  do  not  want  a  negro  woman  for  my 
slave,  I  must  necessarily  want  her  for  my  wife.  I  may 
want  her  for  neither.  I  may  simply  let  her  alone.  In 
some  respects  she  is  certainly  not  my  equal;  but  in  her 
natural  right  to  eat  the  bread  which  she  has  earned 
by  the  sweat  of  her  brow,  she  is  my  equal  and  the 
equal  of  any  man."  Lincoln  at  this  time  entirely 
repudiated  the  title  of  AboHtionist,  and  firmly  decHned 
to  support  the  Abolitionists  in  their  efforts  to  get 
slavery  declared  illegal  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
United  States.  The  Slave  States  had  entered  the 
Union  under  specific  conditions,  and  the  maintenance 
of  slavery  within  their  borders  was  one  of  them. 
These  conditions  must  be  recognized,  however  regret- 
table such  recognition  might  be.  "We  grant,"  he  said, 
"a  Fugitive  Slave  Law  because  it  is  so  nominated  in  the 
bond."  But  as  to  the  eternal  principle  of  right  and 
wrong  Lincoln  would  allow  no  paltering.  "  If  slavery," 
he  said,  *'is  not  wrong,  nothing  is  wrong."  And 
wherever,  therefore,  it  was  not  "nominated  in  the 
bond,"  slavery  must  be  prevented.  In  a  speech  de- 
livered at  a  slightly  later  date,  one  phrase  in  which 
about  "a  divided  house"  was  afterwards  quoted  and 
remembered  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
America,  he  declared: — 

"We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy  was 
initiated  with  the  avowed  object,  and  confident  promise,  of 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  75 

putting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation.  Under  the  operation  of 
that  policy,  that  agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  has 
constantly  augmented.  In  my  opinion  it  will  not  cease 
until  a  crisis  shall  have  been  reached  and  passed.  'A  house 
di\4ded  against  itself  cannot  stand.'  I  believe  this  Govern- 
ment cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free. 
I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved — I  do  not  expect 
the  house  to  fall — but  I  do  expect  that  it  will  cease  to  be 
divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other. 
Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread 
of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the 
beUef  that  it  is  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction;  or  its  advo- 
cates will  push  it  forward  till  it  shall  become  lawful  alike 
in  all  the  States,  old  as  well  as  new — North  as  well  as 
South." 

No  well-known  public  man  in  America  had  ever 
spoken  so  boldly  on  the  question  of  slavery,  had  ever 
voiced  the  issue  so  clearly.  Lincoln's  Republican  sup- 
porters were  afraid  of  the  effect  on  public  opinion  of  so 
frank  and  outspoken  a  pronouncement.  Lincoln,  how- 
ever, saw  more  clearly  than  they,  in  realizing  that  the 
issue  must  be  faced,  and  that  success  at  the  polls  would 
be  the  lot  of  the  party  who  took  the  firm  stand  and 
refused  to  temporize.  To  Herndon,  himself  an  Abo- 
litionist, when  he  questioned  whether  the  passage  was 
politic,  Lincoln  said,  "I  would  rather  be  defeated  with 
this  expression  in  my  speech  than  be  victorious  without 
it." 

Of  the  shrew'dness  of  Lincoln's  judgment  in  matters 
political,  of  his  capacity  for  gaging  the  sentiments  and 
attitude  of  the  man  in  the  street,  and  his  sagacity  in 


78  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

judging  the  effects  of  political  moves,  there  are  no  two 
opinions.  An  Illinois  political  wirepuller  gives  him  this 
testimony:  "He  was  one  of  the  shrewdest  poUticians 
in  the  State.  Nobody  had  more  experience  in  that 
way.  Nobody  knew  better  what  was  passing  in  the 
minds  of  the  people.  Nobody  knew  better  how  to 
turn  things  to  advantage  poUtically."  At  the  same 
time,  he  adds  that  he  could  not  cheat  people  out  of 
their  votes  any  more  than  he  could  out  of  their  money. 

Lincoln's  great  poUtical  foresight  was  never  more 
conspicuously  shown  than  in  his  contest  with  Douglas 
in  1858.  One  of  the  incidents  of  this  campaign,  which 
involved  almost  daily  speeches  before  pubHc  audiences 
for  the  two  great  protagonists  during  a  period  of  some 
three  months,  was  a  series  of  questions  which  either 
party  proposed  for  the  other  to  answer  by  way  of 
establishing  the  precise  attitude  which  his  opponent 
took  up.  Douglas  began  by  propounding  a  Hst  of 
questions  for  Lincoln  to  reply  to,  his  object  being  to 
commit  him  to  strong  Abolitionist  doctrines,  which  he 
felt  confident  would  lose  him  pubUc  support.  Thus, 
for  instance,  he  wanted  to  know  whether  Lincoln  was 
pledged  to  the  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  to 
resist  the  admission  of  negro  Slave  States,  to  the  pro- 
hibition of  the  slave  trade  between  the  States,  and  to 
the  prohibition  of  slaveiy  in  the  Territories.  Lincoln 
repUed  that  he  was  pledged  to  no  proposition  except  the 
prohibition  of  slavery  in  all  the  Territories. 

Lincoln  then  propounded  to  Douglas  four  questions, 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  77 

on  the  second  of  which  the  very  gravest  issues  hung. 
"Can/'  he  asked,  "the  people  of  a  United  States 
Territory,  in  any  lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of  any 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  exclude  slavery  from  its 
limits,  prior  to  the  formation  of  a  State  Constitution?" 
His  friends  warned  Lincoln  that  his  putting  this  ques- 
tion would  give  Douglas  the  opportunity  he  desired  to 
set  himself  right  with  the  people  of  Illinois  and  to  secure 
his  reelection  as  Senator.  To  this  Lincoln  rejoined: 
"I  am  killing  larger  game.  If  Douglas  answers,  he 
can  never  be  President;  and  the  battle  of  1860  is  worth 
a  hundred  of  this."  Chief  Justice  Taney's  judgment 
on  the  Dred  Scott  case  had  indeed  caused  great  em- 
barrassment to  the  Republican  party.  It  had,  how- 
ever, created  also  a  serious  difficulty  for  Douglas.  In 
view  of  the  attitude  he  had  adopted,  he  was  bound 
to  treat  this  decision  as  right;  but  if  so.  Congress  had 
not  the  power  to  prohibit  slavery  in  a  Territory;  nor 
indeed  was  it  clear  how  a  Territorial  Legislature  whose 
authority  was  delegated  by  Congress  could  possess  this 
power  either.  What,  then,  became  of  the  point  on 
which  Douglas  had  laid  so  much  stress,  that  each 
State  should  decide  for  itself  whether  it  would  admit 
slavery  or  not?    To  this  question  Douglas  repHed: 

"It  matters  not  what  way  the  Supreme  Court  may  here- 
after decide  as  to  the  abstract  question  whether  slavery  may 
or  may  not  go  into  a  Territory  under  the  Constitution;  the 
people  have  the  lawful  means  to  introduce  it  or  exclude  it, 
as  they  please,  for  the  reason  that  slavery  cannot  exist  a 


78  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

day  or  an  hour  anywhere  unless  it  is  supported  by  local 
police  regulations.  Those  police  regulations  can  only  be 
estabhshed  by  the  local  Legislature,  and  if  the  people  are 
opposed  to  slavery  they  will  elect  representatives  to  that 
body  who  will,  by  unfriendly  legislation,  effectually  prevent 
the  introduction  of  it  into  their  midst.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
they  are  for  it,  their  legislation  wiU  favor  its  extension." 

This  reply,  as  Douglas  confidently  anticipated,  gave 
satisfaction  to  his  Illinois  supporters,  and  insured  his 
reelection  to  the  Senate.  But  it  gave  offense  to  the 
out-and-out  pro-slavery  men  in  the  Southern  States, 
without  whose  support  Douglas  could  not  win  as 
Democratic  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  Hence- 
forth, by  the  Southern  leaders,  Douglas  was  regarded 
as  suspect,  and  they  made  up  their  minds  that,  what- 
ever happened,  he  should  not  become  President.  This, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  had  he  met  with  the  whole- 
hearted support  of  the  Democratic  party,  his  election 
was  almost  a  foregone  conclusion. 

The  situation  thus  brought  about  rendered  the  return 
of  a  Republican  President  at  the  next  election  in  the 
highest  degree  probable.  But  who  this  President 
was  likely  to  be-  was  still  a  matter  of  very  considerable 
doubt,  and  Lincoln  himself,  despite  the  leading  role 
he  had  taken  in  the  creation  of  the  Republican  party, 
was  hardly  thought  of  in  this  connection.  He  had, 
indeed,  only  been  a  member  of  Congress  for  two  years, 
and  had  never  occupied  any  important  oJBScial  position. 
Seward,  who  was  the  popular  favorite  for  the  nomina- 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  79 

tion,  had  been  Governor  of  New  York  State.  He  had 
been  a  stanch  opponent  of  compromise  in  the  matter 
of  slavery  and  had  enjoyed  a  long  and  honorable 
pohtical  career  Other  leaders  of  the  party  besides 
Seward  were  not  without  some  show  of  justification 
in  considering  that  their  claims  to  the  position  of 
President  were  greater  than  Lincoln's.  Among  these 
was  Chase,  who  had  been  Governor  of  Ohio,  and  who 
afterwards  became  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  during 
Lincoln's  first  administration.  Both  afterwards  felt 
very  sore  at  the  preference  accorded  to  Lincoln, 
and  Chase  never  got  over  his  resentment  at  what 
he  considered  a  slight  to  his  superior  talents  and 
quahfications.  Certain,  however,  of  Lincoln's  friends 
had  made  up  their  minds  that  Lincoln  was  the  right 
person  for  the  Presidency. 


Chapter  VI 

FROM  PRAIRIE  POLITICIAN  TO  PRESIDENT 

The  electric  condition  of  the  political  atmosphere  in 
connection  with  the  slavery  question,  and  the  violent 
passions  aroused  on  both  sides  in  this  controversy, 
resulted  about  this  time  in  a  number  of  outbreaks  of 
greater  or  lesser  consequence  in  various  parts  of 
America.  The  most  noteworthy  of  these  was  the 
celebrated  raid  of  John  Brown  and  his  band  of  Abo- 
litionists and  negroes  upon  the  Government  Arsenal 
at  Harper's  Ferry  in  Virginia.  John  Brown  was  by 
religion  a  Puritan  of  the  Mayflower  brand,  and  he  was 
in  some  sense  the  Garibaldi  of  the  anti-slavery  battle, 
the  free-lance  and  extremist  who  was  determined  to 
force  the  issue  at  all  hazards,  without  regard  to  the 
laws  of  society  or  the  State.  In  the  disturbances  in 
Kansas  in  connection  with  the  new  constitution  for  that 
State  and  the  struggle  to  prevent  a  slave  constitution 
being  forced  upon  it,  John  Brown  had  taken  a  fore- 
most part.  He  had  already  engaged  in  local  battles 
and  forays,  in  which  blood  had  been  shed  on  both  sides. 
In  October,  1859,  he  engaged  in  a  more  daring  and 

ambitious  enterprise  by  seizing  upon  the  State  Arsenal 

80 


PRAIRIE  POLITICIAN  TO  PRESIDENT    81 

at  Harper's  Ferry.  This  exploit,  however,  was  fated 
to  be  his  last.  Things  had  reached  a  point  at  which 
it  was  necessary  for  the  State  to  intervene  by  armed 
force. 

Robert  E.  Lee,  afterwards  destined  to  win  fame  as  the 
noted  Southern  general,  took  command  of  the  troops, 
and  resistance  was  very  soon  brought  to  an  end.  John 
Brown  fought  to  the  last.  Two  of  his  sons  were  slain 
in  the  encounter,  and  he  himself  was  desperately 
wounded.  His  object  had  been  doubtless  to  obtain 
the  wherewithal  to  free  further  slaves  by  force;  but 
the  mad  enterprise  had  the  only  possible  termination. 
Brown  was  legally  tried  and  hanged.  No  State  can 
afford  to  wink  at  those  who  take  the  law  into  their  own 
hands.  At  the  same  time  his  death  aroused  wide- 
spread indignation  and  sympathy;  for  it  was  felt  that, 
however  misguided  he  had  been,  he  had  died  in  a 
noble  cause  and  for  conscience'  sake.  He  was  asked 
shortly  before  his  death  how  he  justified  his  acts.  In 
reply  to  his  interlocutor  he  observed:  *'I  think,  my 
friend,  you  are  guilty  of  a  great  wrong  against  God 
and  humanity — I  say  it  without  wishing  to  be  offensive, 
— and  it  would  be  perfectly  right  for  any  one  to  inter- 
fere with  you  so  far  as  to  free  those  you  wilfully  and 
wickedly  hold  in  bondage.  I  think  I  did  right,  and 
that  others  will  do  right  who  interfere  with  you  at  any 
time  and  at  all  times."  He  wrote  to  a  friend  that  he 
rejoiced  hke  Paul,  for  if  they  killed  him  it  would 
greatly  advance  the^  cause  of  Christ.     Longfellow,  in 


82  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

an  entry  in  his  Diary  for  Friday,  2nd  December,  1859, 
the  day  on  which  John  Brown  was  hanged,  voiced  a 
very  wide-spread  feehng  throughout  the  Northern 
States  of  America:  "This  will  be  a  great  day  in  our 
history;  the  date  of  a  new  revolution  quite  as  much 
needed  as  the  old  one.  Even  now,  as  I  write,  they  are 
leading  old  John  Brown  to  execution  in  Virginia  for 
attempting  to  rescue  slaves.  This  is  sowing  the  wind 
to  reap  the  whirlwind,  which  will  soon  come." 

Coming  events  were  indeed  already  beginning  to  cast 
their  shadows  before,  and  those  with  foresight  could 
read  the  signs  of  the  times  and  reaUze  how^  ominous 
were  the  clouds  that  were  gathering  in  all  quarters  of 
the  pohtical  sky.  The  attitude  of  Lincoln  towards 
John  Brown  w^as  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  Cavour 
to  Garibaldi.  Lincoln  w^as  the  last  man  to  look  with 
favor  on  open  defiance  of  the  law.  He  had  ahenated 
the  AboUtionists  by  his  insistence  on  adhering  to  the 
terms  of  the  Union,  by  which  slavery  was  admitted  in 
certain  States.  He  had  now  no  word  of  sjonpathy 
for  the  misguided  enthusiast  who  imagined  that  he  had 
some  divine  commission  to  Uberate  the  slave.  This 
view  he  expressed  in  his  celebrated  Cooper  Institute 
Speech,  and  though  to  some,  at  a  time  when  passions 
w^ere  so  intensely  aroused,  it  must  have  struck  a  jarring 
note,  it  was  entirely  true  to  the  character  of  the  man 
who  made  it,  and  in  keeping  with  his  whole  outlook 
upon  life  and  his  conception  of  the  duty  of  man  to  man. 
This  Cooper  Institute  Speech,  Uke  several  other  of 


PRAIRIE  POLITICIAN  TO  PRESIDENT    83 

Lincoln's  famous  orations,  marks  an  important  turning- 
point  in  his  political  career.  It  was  in  a  sense  his 
introduction  to  the  intellectual  aristocracy  of  the  East- 
ern States,  who  had  hitherto  merely  heard  rumors  of 
him  as  a  prairie  poUtician  and  witty  stump  orator, 
with  an  unrivaled  reputation  for  telling  lisky  stories. 
"In  October,  1859,"  says  Herndon,  "he  came  rushing 
into  the  office  one  morning  with  a  letter  from  New 
York  City,  inviting  him  to  dehver  a  lecture  there,  and 
asked  my  advice,  and  that  of  other  friends,  as  to  the 
subject  and  character  of  his  address.  We  all  recom- 
mended a  speech  on  the  poKtical  situation.  He  ac- 
cepted the  invitation  of  the  New  York  committee, 
at  the  same  time  notif>dng  them  that  his  speech 
would  deal  entirely  with  poUtical  questions,  and  fix- 
ing a  day  late  in  February  as  the  most  convenient 
time.  Meanwhile  he  spent  the  intervening  time  in 
careful  preparation." 

It  was  an  anxious  occasion  for  Lincoln.  The  au- 
dience he  was  to  meet  in  New  York  would  include 
among  its  members  many  of  the  best  known  men  of 
the  day,  the  foremost  representatives  of  the  wealthy 
and  fashionable  society  of  the  greatest  city  of  the 
Union.  He  himself  was  not  without  considerable  mis- 
giving as  to  the  reception  with  which  he  was  likely  to 
meet.  The  result  showed  that  he  had  gaged  rightly 
the  temper  of  his  audience.  He  avoided  all  attempt 
at  rhetorical  display  or  impassioned  oratory,  and 
studied  to  make  appeal  to  the  reason  rather  than  to 


84  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

the  emotions  of  his  listeners.  The  speech  was  char- 
acterized by  the  temperateness  of  its  tone  and  the 
forcible  and  logical  manner  in  which  he  drove  home 
his  points  on  the  leading  question  of  the  day.  It  was 
widely  reported  in  full  in  the  New  York  press,  and 
praised  for  its  "great  apparent  candor  and  great  fair- 
ness." The  late  Joseph  H.  Choate,  for  some  years 
American  Ambassador  in  London,  who  was  present  on 
the  occasion,  has  left  a  record  of  his  impressions  of  the 
speech  and  the  speaker:  ^ — 

"It  is  now,"  he  said,  "forty  years  since  I  first  saw  and 
heard  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  the  impression  which  he  left  on 
my  mind  is  ineffaceable.  After  his  great  successes  in  the 
West,  he  came  to  New  York  to  make  a  political  address. 
He  appeared  in  every  sense  of  the  word  like  one  of  the  plain 
people  among  whom  he  loved  to  be  counted.  At  first  sight 
there  was  nothing  impressive  or  imposing  about  him,  except 
that  his  great  stature  singled  him  out  from  the  crowd;  his 
clothes  hung  awkwardly  on  his  giant  frame,  his  face  was  of 
a  dark  pallor,  without  the  slightest  tinge  of  color;  his  seamed 
and  rugged  features  bore  the  furrows  of  hardship  and  struggle; 
his  deep-set  eyes  looked  sad  and  anxious;  his  countenance 
in  repose  gave  little  evidence  of  that  brain-power  which  had 
raised  him  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  station  among  his 
countrymen.  .  .  . 

"It  was  a  great  audience,  including  all  the  noted  men — all 
the  learned  and  cultured — of  his  party  in  New  York:  editors, 
clergymen,  statesmen,  lawyers,  merchants,  critics.  They 
were  all  very  curious  to  hear  him.  His  fame  as  a  powerful 
speaker  had  preceded  him,  and  exaggerated  rumor  of  his 

*  In  an  addreei  given  at  Edinburgh  in  1000. 


PRAIRIE  POLITICIAN  TO  PRESIDENT    85 

wit  had  reached  the  East.  When  Mr.  Br>'ant  preflented  hhn 
on  the  high  platform  of  the  Cooper  Institute,  a  vast  sea  of 
eager,  upturned  faces  greeted  him,  full  of  intense  curiosity 
to  see  what  this  rude  child  of  the  people  was  like.  He  was 
equal  to  the  occasion.  When  he  spoke  he  was  transformed; 
his  eye  kindled,  his  voice  rang,  his  face  shone  and  seemed  to 
light  up  the  whole  assembly.  For  an  hour  and  a  half  he 
held  his  audience  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand.  His  style  of 
speech  and  manner  of  delivery  were  severely  simple.  What 
Lo\vell  called  'the  grand  simplicities  of  the  Bible,'  with 
which  he  was  so  famihar,  were  reflected  in  his  discourse. 
With  no  attempt  at  ornament  or  rhetoric,  without  parade 
or  pretense,  he  spoke  straight  to  the  point.  If  any  came 
expecting  the  turgid  eloquence  or  the  ribaldry  of  the  frontier, 
they  must  have  been  startled  at  the  earnest  and  sincere 
purity  of  his  utterances.  .  .  . 

"He  spoke  upon  the  theme  which  he  had  mastered  so 
thoroughly.  He  demonstrated  by  copious  historical  proofs 
and  masterly  logic  that  the  Fathers  who  created  the  Con- 
stitution in  order  to  fonn  a  more  perfect  union,  to  establish 
justice,  and  to  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  themselves 
and  their  posterity,  intended  to  empower  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment to  exclude  slavery  from  the  Territories.  In  the 
kindliest  spirit,  he  protested  against  the  avowed  threat  of 
the  Southern  States  to  destroy  the  Union  if,  in  order  to 
secure  freedom  in  those  vast  regions,  out  of  which  future 
States  were  to  be  carved,  a  Republican  President  were 
elected.  ...  He  concluded  with  this  telling  sentence:  'Let 
us  have  faith  that  right  makes  right,  and  in  that  faith  let 
us  to  the  end  dare  to  do  our  duty  as  we  understand  it.' 


}  )j 


Following  his  address  at  the  Cooper  Institute,  Lin- 
coln traveled  to  New  England  to  visit  his  son  Robert, 
who  was  then  at  college,  and  in  answer  to  many  invi- 


86  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

tations,  spoke  at  a  number  of  places  in  Connecticut, 
Rhode  Island,  and  New  Hampshire,  and  was  every- 
where very  favorably  received,  both  by  the  public  and 
the  press. 

The  Manchester  Mirror ^  in  an  editorial  dealing  with 
one  of  the  local  addresses,  thus  commented  on  his 
appearance  and  manner  of  delivery:  ''For  the  first 
half-hour  his  opponents  would  agree  with  every  word 
he  uttered,  and  from  that  point  he  would  lead  them  off 
Uttle  by  little  until  it  seemed  as  if  he  had  got  them 
all  into  his  fold.  He  is  far  from  prepossessing  in 
personal  appearance,  and  his  voice  is  disagreeable,  yet 
he  wins  your  attention  from  the  start.  He  indulges 
in  no  flowers  of  rhetoric,  but  displays  more  shrewdness 
and  more  knowledge  of  the  masses  of  mankind  than 
any  public  speaker  we  have  heard  since  Long  Jim 
Wilson  left  for  California.'^ 

The  very  favorable  impression  that  Lincoln  had 
made  in  New  York  and  the  New  England  States  gener- 
ally reacted  upon  his  prospects  in  Illinois,  and  on  his 
return  it  became  clear  to  him  that  the  Presidential 
nomination  was  within  his  reach  if  he  chose  to  put  him- 
self out  to  obtain  it.  After  a  momentary  hesitation, 
he  gave  his  friends  permission  to  place  his  name  in  the 
field  if  they  thought  proper  to  do  so.  He  was  asked 
whether,  in  the  event  of  the  nomination  for  President 
not  being  obtainable,  he  would  accept  the  post  of 
Vice-President,  which  he  declined  to  do.  His  friends, 
prominent    among    whom    were    Judges    Logan    and 


PRAIRIE  POLITICIAN  TO  PRESIDENT    87 

David  Davis,  took  up  the  matter  with  enthusiasm. 
The  Illinois  State  Convention  shortly  after  met  at 
Decatur  on  the  9th  and  10th  May,  and,  appointing 
George  Logan  the  Springfield  delegate,  instructed  for 
Lincoln. 

An  incident  at  the  Decatur  Convention  has  won 
almost  as  much  celebrity  in  its  way  as  the  adventure 
of  King  Alfred  with  the  cakes.  While  the  meeting  was 
being  held,  John  Hanks,  Lincoln's  old  friend  and 
cousin,  suddenly  appeared  bringing  in  two  historic 
rails  which  he  declared  he  and  Lincoln  had  made  in 
their  early  days  in  the  Sangamon  Bottom  in  1830. 
These  were  received  with  great  cheering  and  applause 
by  the  Convention,  and  the  Sangamon  rails  were  as- 
sociated with  the  name  of  Lincoln  ever  after,  their  hero 
being  chaffingly  alluded  to  as  the  "rail-splitter."  A 
delegate  at  the  Convention  declared  that  these  rails 
would  be  symbolical  of  the  issue  of  the  coming  contest 
as  between  free  and  slave  labor.  Lincoln  regarded 
them  when  they  w^ere  brought  in  with  embarrassed 
amusement.  Finally,  in  response  to  loud  calls,  he 
observed:  "Gentlemen,  I  suppose  you  want  to  know 
something  about  those  things.  Well,  the  truth  is, 
John  Hanks  and  I  did  make  rails  in  the  Sangamon 
Bottom.  I  do  not  know  whether  we  made  those  rails 
or  not.  Fact  is,  I  do  not  think  they  are  a  credit  to 
the  makers.  But  I  do  know  this:  I  made  rails  then, 
and  I  think  I  could  make  better  ones  than  these  now." 

A  week  later  the  delegates  gathered  from  the  various 


88  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

States  for  the  great  political  Convention  at  Chicago 
for  the  nomination  of  the  Republican  candidate  for  the 
Presidency.  The  strong  probability  that  whoever 
was  nominated  at  this  Convention  would  become 
President  of  the  United  States  at  its  most  critical 
period  since  the  foundation  of  the  Union  gave  the 
meeting  unprecedented  importance.  Lincoln  had  given 
Judge  Logan  a  letter  authorizing  him  to  withdraw  his 
name  whenever  his  friends  deemed  such  action  neces- 
saiy  or  proper.  Davis  was  the  business  manager, 
and  any  negotiations  that  were  entered  into  passed 
through  his  hands.  Lincoln  instructed  him  to  make 
no  contracts  that  would  bind  him,  a  request  to  which 
Davis  did  not  find  it  possible  strictly  to  adhere.  It 
soon  became  obvious  that  the  contest  would  be  nar- 
rowed down  to  a  neck-and-neck  race  between  Seward 
and  Lincoln.  No  one  else  was  seriously  in  the  running. 
On  the  first  ballot  Seward  led,  followed  at  no  very  great 
distance  by  Lincoln.  The  second  ballot  showed  that 
Lincoln  had  gained  appreciably  on  his  rival,  but 
Seward  was  still  first  favorite.  At  the  third  ballot 
Carter  of  Ohio  transferred  his  support  to  the  Lincoln 
candidature,  enabling  Lincoln  easily  to  obtain  the 
requisite  majority. 

Meanwhile  he  himself  remained  at  Springfield,  wait- 
ing the  latest  news  from  Chicago  at  the  ofiice  of  the 
Springjield  Journal.    He  was  sitting  there  in  an  arm- 
chair when  the  news  of  his  nomination  reached  him. 
His  first  anxiety  was  to  get  up  and  leave  the  news- 


HAIRIE  POLITICIAN  TO  PRESIDENT    89 

paper  office  "to  tell  a  little  woman  down  the  street  the 
news."  Needless  to  say,  he  was  overwhelmed  with 
congratulations  by  his  Illinois  friends;  and  the  next 
day  a  Committee  from  the  Chicago  Convention,  with 
a  delegate  from  Massachusetts  at  its  head,  called  to 
give  formal  notice  of  his  nomination.  The  RepubUcan 
platform  amounted  to  a  declaration  (which  was  warmly 
indorsed  by  Lincoln)  'Hhat  the  new  dogma  that  the 
Constitution  carries  slavery  into  all  the  Territories  is 
a  dangerous  political  heresy,  revolutionary  in  tendency, 
and  subversive  of  the  peace  and  harmony  of  the 
country.  That  the  normal  condition  of  all  the  Terri- 
tories is  that  of  Freedom.  That  neither  Congress,  the 
Territorial  Legislature,  nor  any  individual  can  give  legal 
existence  to  slavery  in  any  Territoiy.  That  the  re- 
opening of  the  slave  trade  would  be  a  crime  against 
humanity." 

After  his  nomination  Lincoln  turned  over  his  law 
practise  to  his  partner,  W.  H.  Herndon,  and  engaged 
as  his  private  secretary  a  clerk  in  the  office  of  the 
Secretary  of  State,  of  the  name  of  John  G.  Nicolay, 
who  afterwards  collaborated  with  John  Hay  in  the  pro- 
duction of  the  standard  Life  of  the  great  President. 
He  was  given  the  use  of  the  Governor's  room  at  the 
State  House  for  an  office,  and  it  was  from  this  as  head- 
quarters that  Lincoln  conducted  his  own  Presidential 
campaign.  His  activities  were  throughout  devoted  to 
harmonizing  the  rather  numerous  discords  and  local 
dissensions  in  the  RepubHcan  party,  for  which  his 


/ 


90  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

tact  and  good  temper  specially  adapted  him.  His  fore- 
sight as  regards  the  probable  moves  of  his  opponents 
in  the  poHtical  campaign  was  remarkable  and  unique. 
He  was,  however,  over-sanguine  in  his  belief  that  the 
South  w^ould  not  have  recourse  to  the  arbitrament  of 
arms  at  the  last  resort.  ''The  people  of  the  South," 
he  said,  "have  too  much  sense  to  attempt  the  ruining 
of  the  Government." 

Lincoln's  own  cool  and  calculating  nature  made  it 
difficult  for  him  to  realize  the  extent  to  which  passions 
had  been  aroused  in  the  Southern  States.  He  at- 
tempted constantly  to  reassure  the  slave-owning  States 
as  regards  the  attitude  hkely  to  be  taken  by  a  Repub- 
lican administration.  "Do  the  people  of  the  South," 
he  asked  in  a  letter  to  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  "really 
entertain  fears  that  a  RepubUcan  administration  would 
directly  or  indirectly  interfere  with  the  slaves?  If 
they  do,  I  wish  to  assure  you,  as  once  a  friend — and 
still,  I  hope,  not  an  enemy, — there  is  no  cause  for  such 
fears.  The  South  would  be  in  no  greater  danger  in  this 
respect  than  in  the  days  of  Washington.  I  suppose, 
however,  that  this  does  not  meet  the  case.  You  think 
slavery  is  right  and  ought  to  be  extended;  while  we 
think  it  is  wrong  and  ought  to  be  restricted.  That,  I 
suppose,  is  the  rub."  The  election  took  place  on 
6th  November,  1860.  There  were  four  competitors: 
Lincoln,  for  the  Republicans;  Douglas,  for  the  Demo- 
crats; Breckenridge,  for  the  Slave-owners;  and  Bell, 
for  the  old  Whigs,  now  quite   a   forlorn   hope.    The 


LINCOLN  AT  THE  TIME  OF  HIS  FIRST  NOMINATION  FOR  PRESIDENT 
A  bust  in  Grecian  marble,  by  Gutzon  Borglum,  owned  by  Col.  Samuel  P.  Colt 


PRAIRIE  POLITICIAN  TO  PRESIDENT    91 

popular  vote  gave  Lincoln  a  majority  of  some  600,000 
over  DouglaS;  his  nearest  rival;  but  in  the  voting  of 
the  Electoral  College,  Lincoln  received  an  absolute 
majority  of  180  votes,  his  nearest  competitor  being 
Breckenridge,  with  72.  Springfield,  needless  to  say, 
was  en  fete  on  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  declaration  of 
the  poll.  Lincoln  was  called  upon  for  a  speech,  but 
he  merely  thanked  his  supporters  for  their  congratu- 
lations and  observed :  "  In  all  our  rejoicing  let  us  neither 
express  nor  cherish  any  hard  feeling  towards  any  citizen 
who  has  differed  from  us.  Let  us  at  all  times  remember 
that  all  American  citizens  are  brothers  of  a  common 
country,  and  should  dwell  together  in  the  bonds  of 
fraternal  feeling."  Lincoln's  habitual  caution  was  in- 
deed never  more  strongly  shown  than  in  what  he  said 
and  what  he  refrained  from  saying  at  this  critical  mo- 
ment of  his  country's  history. 


Chapter  VII 

THE  RIGHTS  AND  WRONGS  OF  THE  WAR 

For  the  next  four  months,  according  to  the  rules  of 

the  United  States  Constitution,  Lincoln  found  his  hands 

tied.    He  was  President-elect,  but  did  not  come  into 

office  until  the  succeeding  March.     In  view  of  the 

active  steps  for  secession  which  were  at  once  taken  by 

the  South  as  soon  as  the  news  of  his  election  became 

known,  this  position  was  a  singularly  embarrassing  one, 

as  he  had  no  means  of  taking  action  himself,  and  the 

outgoing  President  was  also  unwilling  to  take  any  steps 

which   might,    as   he   feared,    precipitate   a   conflict. 

Appeals  came  to  him  from  all  quarters,  but  naturally 

he  could  do  nothing.    To  an  old  friend  who  came  to 

see  him  at  Springfield  he  observed  sadly:   "I  suppose 

you  have  forgotten  the  trial  down  in  Montgomery 

County,  where  your  partner  gave  away  your  case  in 

his  opening  speech.    I  saw  you  motioning  to  him,  and 

how  uneasy  you  were;   but  you  could  not  stop  him. 

And  that  is  just  the  way  with  Buchanan  and  me.    He 

is  giving  away  the  case,  and  I  cannot  stop  him." 

One  effort  was  made  for  a  joint  conference  of  the 

President  and  the  President-elect  on  the  situation; 

92 


RIGHTS  AND  WRONGS  OF  THE  WAR    93 

but  Lincoln  realized  the  danger  that  might  arise  through 
thus  compromising  himself  in  the  matter  without  pos- 
sessing the  necessary  power  to  act,  and  replied  with 
a  counter  proposition  which  threw  back  upon  the 
representatives  of  the  seceding  States  the  responsibility 
for  opening  hostilities.  General  Green  came  to  Spring- 
field in  December,  suggesting  such  a  conference  on 
behalf  of  President  Buchanan.  Lincoln  listened  to 
Green  with  courtesy  and  attention,  and  handed  him  a 
letter  in  which  he  stated  that  he  did  not  desire  any 
amendment  to  the  Constitution,  altho  he  recognized 
the  right  of  the  American  people  to  adopt  one.  That  he 
believed  in  maintaining  inviolate  the  rights  of  each  State 
to  control  its  own  domestic  institutions;  and  that  he 
considered  the  lawless  invasion  by  armed  force  of  the 
soil  of  any  State  or  Territory  as  the  gravest  of  crimes. 
While  these  were  his  sentiments,  he  decHned  to  consent 
to  their  pubHcation  unless  the  Senators  from  Georgia, 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  Florida,  Louisiana,  and  Texas 
would  sign  a  pledge  'Ho  suspend  all  action  for  the  dis- 
memberment of  the  Union  until  some  act  deemed  to  be 
violative  of  our  rights  shall  be  done  by  the  incoming 
administration."    Thus  the  negotiations  fell  through. 

From  the  first  Lincoln  took  up  a  most  determined 
attitude  with  regard  to  the  question  of  secession  and 
slavery.  Of  the  former  he  said :  ''The  right  of  a  State 
to  secede  is  not  an  open  or  debatable  question."  With 
regard  to  the  latter,  he  wrote  to  Ehhu  B.  Washburne 
as  follows:    ''Prevent  our  friends  from  demoralizing 


94  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

themselves  and  their  cause  by  entertaining  propo- 
sitions for  compromise  of  any  sort  on  slavery  exten- 
sions." And  again  to  Seward  he  wrote:  "I  say  now, 
as  I  have  said  all  the  while,  that  on  the  question  of 
extending  slavery  I  am  inflexible.  I  am  for  no  com- 
promise which  assists  or  permits  the  extension  of  the 
institution  on  soil  owned  by  the  nation." 

Lincoln's  attitude  on  both  these  questions  was  thus 
quite  unmistakable  from  the  first,  and  he  never  flinched 
or  compromised  throughout,  or  deviated  in  any  way 
from  the  position  he  had  adopted.  In  America  gener- 
ally, however,  there  were  all  sorts  and  varieties  of 
opinions  with  regard  to  both  one  question  and  the 
other.  The  South  was  determined  to  maintain  slavery 
at  aU  hazards,  and  freely  quoted  the  Bible  in  its  sup- 
port, naming  an  earher  Abraham  as  one  of  its  most 
undoubted  supporters.  The  pulpit  was  thus  brought 
in  as  a  champion  of  an  institution  which  outraged  the 
very  basic  principles  of  Christianity.  In  the  North 
there  w^ere  many  men  like  Stephen  Douglas,  who 
were  indifferent  in  the  matter.  Then,  again,  there 
were  the  Abolitionists,  who  were  determined  to  abolish 
slavery  throughout  the  Union  at  whatever  price,  even 
if  this  involved  the  breaking  up  of  the  Union  itself. 
These,  however,  were  a  comparatively  small  minority. 
The  large  majority  of  the  Northern  voters  took  a  very 
similar  hne  to  Lincoln,  refusing  to  purchase  the  ad- 
hesion of  the  South  by  making  any  further  concessions 
to  the  slave-owning   States.    A  very  much  larger, 


RIGHTS  AND  WRONGS  OF  THE  WAR    95 

inc^eed  an  overwhelming  majority,  were  determined 
that  under  no  circumstances  whatever  should  the 
Union  be  dissolved,  even  if  this  involved  all  the  horrors 
of  civil  war.  The  average  Northerner  looked  upon  the 
secession  of  a  State  or  States  from  the  Union  as  rebel- 
hon  pure  and  simple.  In  the  South,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  Union  was  merely  regarded  as  a  federation  which 
it  would  be  regrettable  to  dissolve,  but  from  which  it 
was  legitimate  for  any  State,  should  it  so  desire,  to 
withdraw  at  its  own  option. 

On  the  question,  thus,  of  the  fundamental  character 
of  the  Union  itself.  North  and  South  were  sharply 
divided.  It  is  pertinent  to  ask  which  was  in  the  right. 
There  are  two  points  of  view  from  which  this  question 
may  be  answered.  The  first  and  most  obvious  is  the 
historical  standpoint,  and  to  some,  at  first  sight,  this 
may  seem  to  be  the  only  inquiry  that  has  a  bearing  on 
the  matter  at  issue.  Taking  this  point  of  view  first, 
it  is  by  no  means  clear  that  the  original  Constitution 
of  the  Union  deprived  the  federating  States  of  the  right 
of  secession.  The  intention  doubtless  was  to  form  a 
permanent  federation;  but  there  was  no  denial  of  the 
right  of  a  State  to  secede  at  any  subsequent  period  if 
it  so  chose,  and  if  any  such  stipulation  had  been  then 
made  it  is  somewhat  doubtful  if  the  federation  could 
have  been  formed.  Grave  difficulties  had  to  be  over- 
come at  the  time  in  order  to  induce  the  several  States  to 
come  together  under  one  government.  In  order  to 
reduce  to  a  minimum  the  not  inconsiderable  opposition 


96  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

which  existed  in  some  of  these  States  to  bringing  the 
federation  into  being,  public  declarations  were  made 
to  the  citizens  of  the  most  reluctant  of  the  original 
States  by  their  own  representatives  to  the  effect  that 
if  the  federation  proved  detrimental  to  their  interests 
it  would  be  open  to  the  States  in  question  to  withdraw. 
Tho  such  statements  were  made  without  any  real 
authority,  they  obviously  exprest  the  view  then  held 
by  many,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  no  trouble  w^as 
taken  to  contradict  them.  It  seems,  indeed,  that 
from  the  historical  standpoint  the  case  of  the  North 
for  the  enforcement  of  the  Union  was  singularly  weak. 
Apart,  however,  from  this  historical  question,  there 
were  and  are  certain  general  considerations  in  a  case 
of  the  kind  which  are  bound  to  have  very  grave  weight 
with  all  serious  statesmen  and  politicians.  The  fact 
is,  as  the  Duke  of  Argyll  in  Great  Britain  very  plainly 
stated,  "no  government  in  the  world  can  afford  in 
practise  to  admit  the  right  of  secession  of  any  part  or 
portion  of  the  country  from  its  own  allegiance.'*  Lord 
Charnwood  has  put  the  case  in  his  recent  "Life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln"  with  admirable  clearness:  "At  the 
best,"  he  says,  "if  the  States  which  adhered  to  the  old 
Union  had  admitted  the  claim  of  the  first  seceding 
States  to  go,  they  could  only  have  retained  for  them- 
selves an  insecure  existence  as  a  nation,  threatened,  at 
each  fresh  conflict  of  interest  or  sentiment,  with  a 
further  disruption  which  could  not  upon  any  principle 
have  been  resisted."    A  nation  must  either  tend  to 


I 

RIGHTS  AND  WRONGS  OF  THE  WAR    97 

union  or  to  disintegration.  The  nation  which  tends  to 
union  becomes  year  by  year  more  definitely  a  single 
coherent  whole,  the  several  parts  of  which  are  unable 
to  regard  themselves  as  existent  apart  from  the  general 
commonwealth,  any  more  than  the  different  members 
of  the  human  body  can  exist  independently  of  the  in- 
dividual. Disintegration,  on  the  other  hand,  once 
commenced,  tends  to  further  disintegration  at  an 
accelerated  rate,  and  the  total  destruction  of  the  na- 
tional unity  is  the  inevitable  consequence.  Had  the 
North  permitted  the  secession  of  the  South,  there  was 
no  guaranty  that  this  would  have  involved  a  final 
settlement  or  that  war  might  not  have  broken  out  at 
some  subsequent  date  between  their  respective  govern- 
ments. In  addition  to  this,  the  break-up  of  the 
Union,  as  Lincoln  was  not  slow  to  point  out,  was  a 
disaster  to  a  larger  cause,  the  cause  of  popular  self- 
government.  If  the  American  Union  should  prove  to 
be  a  failure,  the  greatest  attempt  that  had  ever  been 
made  in  this  direction  would  be  an  admitted  fiasco  and, 
following  its  failure,  the  principle  of  popular  self- 
government  itself  would  inevitably  receive  a  severe 
setback  throughout  the  entire  world.  In  fighting  for 
the  Union,  the  North  was  thus  fighting  for  a  vital 
principle,  the  importance  of  which  lay  far  more  in  its 
own  inherent  nature  than  in  any  adventitious  support 
which  it  might  find  in  the  precise  wording  of  the 
original  Constitution  of  the  States. 
With  regard  to  the  question  of  negro  slavery,  it  is 


98  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

rare  indeed  nowadays  to  find  any  one  who  is  willing 
to  defend  this  institution  as  morally  justifiable;  but 
it  is  very  common  to  meet  people  who  will  point  out 
that  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  certain  cases  caused 
greater  evils  than  it  supprest,  and  that  among  the 
negro  slaves  in  the  South  the  acquisition  of  a  freedom 
to  which  they  were  not  accustomed  led,  in  not  a  few 
instances,  to  moral  degeneration.  In  reply  to  this  it 
may  be  said  that  no  great  social  revolution  can  pos- 
sibly be  carried  through  without  bringing  about  certain 
inevitable  harmful  results.  The  effect  of  any  vast 
change  in  the  social  organism  is  always  to  produce 
certain  individual  cases  of  injustice  or  actual  moral 
evil;  but  this  must  not  blind  us  to  the  general  justice 
and  beneficence  of  the  change.  No  one  will  dispute 
the  fact  that  there  were  many  honorable  and  humane 
slave-owners  in  the  South;  but  it  is  none  the  less  true 
that  they  were  the  instruments  of  an  essentially  evil 
and  debasing  system.  The  kindness  and  humanity  of 
individual  slave-owners  was  no  real  compensation  for 
this.  "Your  children,'^  exclaimed  Lincoln,  *'may  play 
with  the  little  black  children,  but  they  must  not  play 
with  his" — I.  e.  the  slave-dealer's  or  the  slave-driver's. 
By  this  fact  alone,  as  Lincoln  was  shrewd  enough  to 
point  out,  every  decent  man  in  the  South  joined  in  the 
condemnation  of  the  very  basis  on  which  slavery  rested. 
A  stronger  point  could  scarcely  have  been  made.  If 
the  slave-dealer's  trade  was  an  honorable  one,  why  did 
the  slave-owner  turn  his  back  upon  him? 


RIGHTS  AND  WRONGS  OF  THE  WAR    99 

In  those  days  the  work  of  poUtical  propagandism 
was  little  understood,  otherwise  it  would  seem  almost 
incredible  that  the  sympathy  of  the  majority  of  English 
society  was  on  the  side  of  the  South.  The  Englishman, 
however,  was  dependent  on  his  Press,  and  in  the  matter 
of  the  Press  of  that  day  it  must  be  admitted  that  he 
was  not  well  served.  Had  it  been  purely  a  question  of 
a  war  for  the  suppression  of  slavery,  British  sympathy 
must  inevitably  have  been  found  on  the  other  side; 
but  the  issues  were  confused,  and  the  average  man  in 
the  street  was  puzzled  to  know  what  precisely  the 
North  was  fighting  for.  That  the  South  was  fighting 
for  the  institution  of  slavery  pure  and  simple,  he  posi- 
tively refused  to  beheve,  and  yet  this  was  most  un- 
questionably the  case.  The  sympathy  of  men  like 
Gladstone  tended  to  be  ever  on  the  side  of  smaller 
nationahties,  and  he  mistakenly  looked  upon  the 
secession  of  the  South  as  a  rightful  demand  on  their 
part  for  self-government  according  to  their  own  ideas. 
It  should  also,  perhaps,  not  be  forgotten  that  Glad- 
stone's own  inmiediate  ancestors  were  identified  with 
the  slave-trade,  and  it  is  hardly  to  be  questioned  that 
he  regarded  the  institution  with  more  leniency  from 
this  very  cause,  Uttle  though  he  would  have  been  will- 
ing to  admit  it  even  to  himself.  John  Bright,  Tenny- 
son, and  the  Duke  of  Argyll  were  among  the  few 
prominent  men  in  England  who  consistently  defended 
the  cause  of  the  North. 


Chapter    VIII 

THE  GATHERING  STORM 

The  first  consequence  of  the  election  of  Lincoln  as 
President  was  the  convening  by  the  Legislature  of 
South  CaroHna  of  a  specially  elected  Convention  of 
the  State  to  consider  the  desirability  of  secession. 
This  resulted  in  the  passing  on  20th  December  of  a 
definite  ordinance  of  secession.  The  question  then 
arose  what  other  States  would  follow  in  South  Caro- 
lina's footsteps.  Buchanan,  as  already  indicated,  was 
still  President.  He  was  in  his  last  months  of  office. 
Never  possest  of  great  resolution  of  character,  the 
fact  that  he  v/ould  soon  again  become  a  private  citizen 
deprived  him  of  all  moral  strength  to  deal  with  the 
crisis.  No  steps  were  taken  by  his  Government  to 
make  clear  that  in  the  case  of  the  seceding  States  the 
Government  would  maintain  its  rights.  In  the  mean- 
time one  State  after  another  was  withdrawing  from 
the  Union,  and  by  February,  1861,  Mississippi,  Florida, 
Alabama,  Georgia,  and  Louisiana  had  followed  the 
example*  of  South  Carolina,  and  Texas  was  very  shortly 
to  follow  suit.     The  representatives  of  these  States 

met  together  at  Montgomery  in  Alabama  to  found 

100 


THE  GATHERING  STORM  101 

what  was  called  the  Confederate  States.  These  States 
were  subsequently  joined  by  Virginia,  North  Caro- 
lina, Tennessee,  and  Arkansas;  but  definite  steps  were 
not  taken  by  them  till  after  the  actual  commencement 
of  hostihties.  By  this  time  the  first  seceding  States 
had  already  adopted  a  provisional  constitution  much 
on  the  Hues  of  the  original  Union,  and  Jefferson  Davis 
was  duly  elected  President,  with  Alexander  H.  Stephens, 
one  of  the  most  moderate  men  of  the  party,  who  was 
specially  anxious  to  avoid  war,  as  Vice-President.  In 
his  inaugural  address  the  Southern  President  com- 
plained that  the  South  had  been  driven  to  separation 
by  wanton  aggression  on  the  part  of  others — a  state- 
ment which  strikes  one  as  singularly  inapplicable  to  the 
facts  of  the  case.  The  Southern  Congress  thereupon 
resolved  to  take  over  all  forts  and  pubKc  property 
generally  in  the  seceded  States. 

Lincoln  left  Springfield  for  the  last  time  on  11th 
February,  1861,  and  took  a  touching  farewell  of  his 
old  friends  and  neighbors. 

"My  friends,"  he  said,  "no  one  not  in  my  situation  can 
appreciate  my  feeling  of  sadness  at  this  parting.  To  this 
place,  and  the  kindness  of  these  people,  I  owe  everything. 
Here  I  have  Hved  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  have  passed 
from  a  young  to  an  old  man.  Here  my  children  have  been 
born  and  one  is  buried.  I  now  leave,  not  Imowing  when 
or  whether  I  may  ever  return,  with  a  task  before  me  greater 
than  that  which  rested  upon  Washington.  Without  the 
assistance  of  that  Divine  Being  who  ever  attended  him,  I 
cannot  succeed.    With  that  assistance,  I  cannot  fail.    Trust- 


102  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

ing  in  Him  who  can  go  with  me,  and  remain  with  you,  and 
be  everywhere  for  good,  let  us  confidently  hope  that  all  will 
yet  be  well.  To  His  care  commending  you,  as  I  hope  in  your 
prayers  you  will  commend  me,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate 
farewell." 

Lincoln  may  well  have  felt  misgivings  as  he  realized 
the  formidable  task  that  lay  before  him.  It  was 
becoming  daily  more  and  more  clear  that  the  Southern 
States  would  insist  on  secession,  and  if  the  President 
would  not  consent  to  this,  it  followed  that  war  was 
inevitable.  Lincoln  at  the  same  time,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  quite  unprepared  for  any  compromise.  Nor 
would  his  Northern  followers  have  listened  for  a  mo- 
ment to  a  step  involving  the  disintegration  of  the 
Union,  however  reluctant  they  might  be  to  taking  the 
final  plunge.  But  if  he  was  confronted,  as  he  said, 
"with  a  task  greater  than  that  which  rested  upon 
Washington,"  he  was  to  all  appearance  but  little 
quahfied  for  so  grave  a  responsibihty.  He  had  had 
none  of  the  previous  training  and  experience  which 
might  have  fitted  him  for  the  post.  Unlike  other  mem- 
bers of  his  Cabinet,  he  had  occupied  no  prominent  re- 
sponsible position.  He  had  made  his  name  solely  as  a 
public  speaker  and  a  party  leader.  From  the  point  of 
view  of  the  country  generally  he  was  "a  dark  horse." 
Seward,  in  many  ways  the  Republican  party's  most 
obvious  choice,  a  man  of  long  poHtical  experience  and 
training,  had  been  rejected  in  his  favor.  It  has  been 
contended  by  some  that  the  reason  for  this  lay  in  the 


THE    WHITE    HOUWE    IN    CIVIL    WAR    TIMES 


THE     CAPITOL    WHEX    LINCOLN    WAS    A    MEMBER    OF    CONGRESS 

(1847-49) 

When  Lincoln  became  President,  the  wings  now  occupied  by  the  Senate 
and  House  of  Representatives  had  recently  been  completed,  but  the 
dome,  as  it  now  is,  was  imder  construction. 


THE  GATHERING  STORM  103 

fact  that  on  the  question  of  slavery  Seward  was  more 
likely  to  go  to  extremes,  and  Lincoln  was  regarded  as 
the  more  cautious  and  prudent  of  the  two.  Lincoln, 
however,  was  a  man  who  had  never  compromised  on 
a  matter  of  vital  principle,  and  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  when  it  came  to  an  issue  of  peace  and 
war,  Seward  would  have  done  so.  At  the  final  crisis 
rather  than  engage  in  civil  war,  Seward  actually  sug- 
gested embroihng  his  country  in  a  foreign  quarrel 
— a  truly  desperate  means  of  meeting  a  desperate 
emergency. 

The  rise  of  Lincoln  from  the  position  of  a  prominent 
public  speaker  to  that  of  President  was,  indeed,  un- 
precedented ;  yet  undoubtedly  events  had  been  moving 
towards  such  a  denouement,  and  there  is  little  doubt 
that  Lincoln,  with  his  customary  far-sightedness,  did 
not  fail  to  realize  the  fact.  He  had  been,  in  short,  the 
protagonist  in  the  anti-slavery  campaign.  He  was 
the  one  popular  figure  that  overtopped  all  the  others 
in  this  great  movement.  He  was,  moreover,  in  spite 
of  the  boldness  of  some  of  the  quoted  observations  in 
his  speeches,  known  for  the  essential  moderation  of  his 
attitude.  He  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
AboUtionists.  He  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
any  measures  which  withdrew  from  the  slave-owning 
States  any  of  the  rights  which  they  possest  under 
the  Union.  He  was  not  willing  even  to  abolish  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  tho  he  favored  its  amendment. 
He  went  out  of  his  way  to  assure  the  Southern  States 


104  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

that  they  had  nothing  to  fear  from  his  appointment 
as  President.  Why,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  did  they 
revolt?  Lord  Charnwood,  in  his  "Life  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,"  makes  some  very  interesting  observations 
on  this  point : — 

"It  is  common/^  he  says,  "to  reproach  the  Southern 
leaders  with  reckless  folly.  They  tried  to  destroy  the 
Union,  which  they  really  valued,  for  the  sake  of  slavery, 
which  they  valued  more;  they  in  fact  destroyed  slavery; 
and  they  did  this,  it  is  said,  in  alarm  at  an  imaginary  danger. 
This  is  not  a  true  ground  of  reproach  to  them.  It  is  true 
that  the  danger  to  slavery  from  the  election  of  Lincoln  was 
not  immediately  pressing.  He  neither  would  have  done 
nor  could  have  done  more  than  prevent  during  his  four 
years  of  office  any  new  acquisition  of  territory  to  the  slave- 
holding  interest,  and  impose  his  veto  on  any  Bill  extending 
slavery  within  the  existing  territory  of  the  Union.  His 
successor  after  four  years  might  or  might  not  have  been  hke- 
minded.  He  did  not  seem  to  stand  for  any  overwhelming 
force  in  American  politics;  there  was  a  majority  opposed  to 
him  in  both  Houses  of  Congress;  a  great  majority  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  which  might  have  an  important  part  to 
play,  held  views  of  the  Constitution  opposed  to  his;  he  had 
been  elected  by  a  minority  only  of  the  whole  American 
people.  Why  could  not  the  Southern  States  have  sat  still, 
secure  that  no  great  harm  would  happen  to  their  institution 
for  the  present,  and  hoping  that  their  former  ascendency 
would  come  back  to  them  with  the  changing  fortunes  of 
party  strife?'* 

Lord  Charnwood  repHes  to  these  apparently  very 
cogent  objections  that  in  the  South  slavery  had  come 
to  be  regarded  as  a  national  and  indeed  almost  a  divine 


THE  GATHERING  STORM  105 

institution.  The  Southerner  was  determined  to  hand 
it  down  to  his  children's  children.  The  North  had 
voted  slavery  to  be  a  crime,  and  their  new  President 
had  put  the  matter  without  mincing:  ''That  if  slavery 
was  not  wrong,  nothing  was  wrong."  It  was  certain 
that  America  would  never  go  back  to  the  position 
which  she  occupied  before  this  first  exphcit  national 
assertion  of  the  wrongfulness  of  slavery  had  been  made. 
If  the  Southern  States  were  not  to  secede,  they  must 
make  up  their  minds  to  remain  the  fellow  countrymen 
of  a  people  who  regarded  their  fundamental  institution 
with  ''growing  reprobation."  "Lincoln  decided  that 
'this  Government  cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave 
and  half  free.'  Lincoln  was  right,  and  so,  from  their 
own  point  of  view,  that  of  men  not  brave  or  wise  enough 
to  take  in  hand  a  difficult  social  reform,  were  the  leaders 
who  declared  immediately  for  secession." 

This  doubtless  gives  clearly  enough  the  point  of 
view  of  the  South.  They  were  not  willing  to  wait  for 
a  possible  swing  of  the  political  pendulum;  they  were 
not  prepared  to  "wait  and  see."  They  had  compelled 
the  North  to  compromise  with  its  convictions  time  after 
time,  and  now  that  they  saw  that  there  was  to  be  no 
further  question  of  compromise,  they,  on  their  part, 
were  determined  not  to  recede.  A  man  who,  by  force 
of  threats,  is  able  to  get  his  own  way  again  and  again, 
and  is  suddenly  brought  up  against  a  point-blank 
refusal  to  yield  further  ground,  will  generally  rather 
fight  than  give  up  his  point.     With  a  man  who  has  been 


106  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

met  firmly  from  the  first  it  is  otherwise.  This  was 
precisely  the  position  where  the  Southern  States  were 
concerned.  Each  time  a  concession  had  been  made 
to  them  they  had  grown  more  determined  and  more 
confident  in  their  own  standpoint.  It  was  too  late 
for  compromise  when  at  length  the  North  said  to 
them,  "Hold!  enough !'*  Whether  they  were  right 
from  their  own  point  of  view,  as  Lord  Charnwood 
thinks,  it  is  very  difficult  to  decide. 

It  is  clear  that  they  might  have  taken  another  course 
altogether,  which  would  have  prevented  the  election  of 
Lincoln  as  President.  They  might,  that  is  to  say,  have 
decided  to  support  Douglas  instead  of  putting  up  a 
slavery  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  thereby  dividing 
the  voting  power  of  the  Democratic  party.  Douglas 
then  would  almost  inevitably  have  been  elected.  Had 
this  happened,  the  Slave  States  would  have  certainly 
been  in  no  worse  position  than  they  were  under  the 
preceding  Presidency  of  Buchanan.  The  conclusion 
is  forced  upon  us  that  if  they  had  been  willing  to  con- 
tinue anything  in  the  nature  of  a  compromise  with  the 
North,  they  might  have  done  so  without  any  fear  of 
aggressive  action  against  their  own  interests.  They 
had,  it  is  plain,  determined  to  force  matters  to  an  issue, 
feeling  doubtless  that  compromise  was  no  permanent 
solution,  and  that  Slave  States  and  Free  States  could 
not  remain  forever  under  a  single  government.  The 
recognition  of  this  attitude  of  mind  on  the  part  of  the 
South  was  doubtless  what  prompted  Lincoln  to  say 


THE  GATHERING  STORM  107 

that  the  Government  "could  not  endure  permanently 
half  slave  and  half  free."  The  crisis,  in  short,  might 
well  have  been  tided  over  for  the  time,  and  probably  for 
a  considerable  period;  but  it  was  bound  to  arrive,  and 
would  have  to  be  faced  eventually. 

Lincoln  reached  Washington  at  the  end  of  February, 
after  a  journey  the  latter  part  of  which  was  rendered 
noteworthy  by  the  receipt  of  news  of  a  plot  to  assassi- 
nate both  the  President  himself  and  other  members  of 
his  Cabinet  in  passing  through  Baltimore.  In  order  to 
avoid  the  danger,  he  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  left 
Harrisburg,  where  he  had  been  staying  the  night,  in 
company  with  Colonel  Lamon,  and  was  driven  to  a 
special  train  which  was  waiting  for  him  on  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad.  At  the  same  time  the  telegraph  wires 
were  cut,  so  that  in  the  event  of  his  departure  being 
discovered,  intelHgence  could  not  be  communicated. 
At  10.30  the  train  reached  Philadelphia,  where  Lincoln 
was  met  by  a  detective,  who  had  a  carriage  waiting 
in  which  the  party  were  driven  to  the  depot  of  the 
Philadelphia,  Wilmington,  and  Baltimore  Railway. 
They  there  took  berths  in  a  sleeping-car,  and  passed 
without  change  through  Baltimore  to  Washington, 
where  Lincoln  arrived  at  6.30  one  morning  at  the  end  of 
February,  1861.  He  was  driven  thence  to  Willard's 
Hotel,  where  he  found  Senator  Stuart  expecting  him, 
and  where  he  remained  until  the  departure  of  the  out- 
going President  from  the  White  House. 

During  all  this  time,  owing  to  the  dominant  in- 


108  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

fluence  of  Southern  sympathizers  in  Buchanan's  Cab- 
inet, the  Northern  States  were  being  stripped  of  arms 
and  ammunition,  and  quantities  of  military  stores  were 
being  sent  south,  without  any  interference  on  the  part 
of  the  President.  MiHtary  posts  in  the  Southern  States 
were  at  the  same  time  being  placed  under  the  command 
of  officers  hostile  to  the  Union.  Lincoln  warned  Gen- 
eral Scott  of  the  situation,  and  intimated  that  it  might 
be  necessary  shortly  to  take  steps  to  recover  such  forts 
on  behalf  of  the  Federal  Government,  pressing  him  to 
take  such  measures  as  were  possible  in  the  meantime 
to  render  this  practicable.  On  4th  March,  1861,  the 
outgoing  President  arrived  in  his  carriage  to  escort 
his  successor  to  the  Capitol,  where  the  Oath  of  Alle- 
giance to  the  Constitution  was  administered  to  him 
by  Chief  Justice  Taney.  Here  he  dehvered  his  inaug- 
ural speech  as  President,  while  Douglas,  his  defeated 
rival,  stood  by  his  side  taking  charge  of  his  hat  and 
cane  while  he  delivered  his  address. 

The  speech  had  been  drawn  up  with  great  care,  and 
every  effort  had  been  made  to  rob  it  of  any  appearance 
of  aggressiveness  towards  the  South.  Originally  writ- 
ten by  Lincoln  in  his  customary  manner  on  scraps  of 
paper  and  the  backs  of  envelops,  it  was  to  some  extent 
revised  and  modified  by  Seward,  whose  suggestions 
were  in  the  main  adopted  by  the  President.  It  set  out 
the  position  of  the  Government  on  the  slavery  con- 
troversy in  a  manner  calculated  to  avoid  arousing  any 
feelings  of  resentment  on  the  part  of  the  opposition. 


THE  GATHERING  STORM  109 

It  strongly  emphasized  the  mdissoluble  character  of  the 
Union,  and  announced  the  decision  of  the  Government 
to  maintain  this  Union  in  the  face  of  all  attempts  to 
undermine  it.  ''The  power/^  said  Lincoln,  ''conferred 
on  me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the 
property  and  places  belonging  to  the  Government  and 
to  collect  the  duties  on  imports.  But  beyond  what 
may  be  necessary  for  these  objects  there  will  be  no 
invasion,  no  using  of  force  against  or  among  the  people 
anywhere."  "In  your  hands,"  he  concluded,  "my  dis- 
satisfied fellow  countrymen,  and  not  in  mine,  is  the 
momentous  issue  of  civil  war.  The  Government  will 
not  assault  you.  You  can  have  no  conflict  without 
being  yourselves  the  aggressors.  .  .  .  The  mystic 
chords  of  memory  stretching  from  every  battle-field 
and  patriot  grave  to  every  loving  hearth  and  hearth- 
stone all  over  this  broad  land  will  yet  swell  the  chorus 
of  union  when  again  touched,  as  surely  they  will  be, 
by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature." 


Chapter  IX 

LINCOLN  AND  HIS  CABINET 

Lincoln  had  for  some  time  past  been  busily  occupied 
in  the  construction  of  his  Cabinet,  which  he  was  de- 
sirous should  represent  as  far  as  possible  various  shades 
of  opinion  in  the  new  Republican  party  with  repre- 
sentatives from  the  Democratic  party  who  were  known 
as  Union  men,  and  afterwards  as  War  Democrats. 
Tho  he  had  full  knowledge  of  the  political  ante- 
cedents of  the  men  he  selected,  his  personal  knowledge 
of  them  was  limited  to  not  more  than  three  or  four. 
They  did  not  prove  in  the  upshot  by  any  means  a  happy 
family,  and  personal  antagonisms  and  rivalries  showed 
themselves  almost  from  the  very  first.  Among  his 
first  selections  were  his  own  rivals  for  the  Presidency, 
including  Seward,  of  New  York;  Chase,  of  Ohio; 
and  Cameron,  of  Pennsylvania.  It  was  most  im- 
portant for  Lincoln  to  secure  the  adhesion  of  Seward, 
who  became  Secretary  of  State,  and  tho  he  was 
within  an  ace  of  withdrawing  his  acceptance,  he 
proved  in  the  end  Lincoln's  most  loyal  and  stanch 
supporter.    Between  Seward  and  Chase  there  was  no 

love  lost.    Chase  represented  the  more  radical  wing 

110 


LINCOLN  AND  HIS  CABINET  111 

of  the  Cabinet,  while  Seward  represented  the  more  con- 
servative elements.  Chase  became  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  a  position  for  which  he  was  singularly  well 
fitted;  Bates,  Attorney-General;  and  Cameron,  for  a 
time.  Secretary  for  War.  To  these  were  subsequently 
added  Caleb  Smith,  of  New  York,  as  Secretary  of  the 
Interior;  Gideon  Welles,  of  Connecticut,  Secretary  of 
the  Navy;  and  Montgomery  Blair,  of  Maryland,  as 
Postmaster-General. 

Cameron,  as  already  intimated,  did  not  remain  long 
in  the  Cabinet,  his  business  incapacity  rendering  his 
retention  impossible.  Before  the  first  year  of  Lincoln's 
administration  had  closed,  he  was  replaced  by  a  much 
abler  man,  a  lawyer  of  note,  in  the  person  of  Edwin  M. 
Stanton.  Stanton  was  a  Democrat,  but  strongly  anti- 
slavery.  His  chief  drawback  was  his  violent  temper 
and  his  overbearing  manner  towards  all  and  sundry. 
The  stories  told  of  Lincoln's  tact  in  dealing  with  this 
very  diflicult  colleague  are  innumerable.  He  had  al- 
ready been  warned,  when  he  first  contemplated  Stan- 
ton's appointment,  of  the  man's  ungovernable  temper 
and  the  trouble  that  was  likely  to  arise  in  the  Cabinet 
in  consequence.  One  of  his  friends,  in  protesting 
against  the  appointment  on  these  grounds,  urged  that 
Stanton,  when  beside  himself  with  rage,  was  in  the 
habit  of  jumping  up  and  down  in  his  excitement. 
Lincoln  replied:  "Well,  if  he  gets  to  jumping  too  much 
we  will  treat  him  as  they  used  to  treat  a  minister  I 
knew  out  West.    He  would  get  so  excited  and  wrought 


112  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

up  at  revival  meetings  that  they  had  to  put  bricks  in 
his  pockets  to  keep  him  down."  "But,"  he  added,  "I 
guess  we  will  let  Stanton  jump  awhile  first." 

The  difficulties  and  disputes  that  arose  through  the 
addition  of  this  new  member  of  the  Cabinet  proved  not 
to  have  been  overestimated;  but  in  Lincoln's  view, 
and  doubtless  it  was  a  correct  one,  his  efficiency  as 
Secretary  for  War  more  than  counterbalanced  them. 
He  had,  however,  as  Httle  respect  for  Lincoln  himself 
as  for  any  other  member  of  the  Cabinet.  On  one 
occasion  a  committee  of  Western  men,  headed  by  a 
certain  Mr.  Love  joy,  procured  from  the  President  an 
important  order  providing  for  the  exchange  of  Eastern 
and  Western  soldiers  during  the  war,  with  a  view  to 
more  effective  work.  This  was  quite  contrary  to 
Stanton's  ideas,  and  he  put  his  foot  down  emphatically 
on  the  new  order.  The  story  runs  that,  armed  with  the 
document  bearing  the  President's  own  signature,  Love- 
joy  betook  himself  to  the  Secretary  for  War,  and  ap- 
prized him  of  the  decision  that  had  been  arrived  at. 
It  is  perhaps  hardly  to  be  wondered  at  that  Stanton 
resented  outside  interference  with  the  management  of 
his  owm  special  department.  In  any  case  he  was 
beside  himself  with  rage.  On  hearing  the  scheme  ex- 
plained to  him  he  flatly  refused  to  carry  it  out.  "But," 
remonstrated  Lovejoy,  "we  have  the  President's  own 
order."  "  Did  Lincoln  give  you  an  order  of  that  kind?" 
asked  Stanton.  "He  did,  sir."  "Then,"  exclaimed 
the  irate  Secretary,  "he  is  a  damned  fool."    "Do  you 


LINCOLN  AND  HIS  CABINET  113 

mean  to  say  that  the  President  is  a  damned  fool?'' 
exclaimed  Love  joy,  in  amazement.  "Yes,  sir,"  re- 
torted Stanton,  ''if  he  gave  you  such  an  order  as  that." 
The  astounded  Congressman  betook  himself  at  once  to 
the  President  and  narrated  the  result  of  his  conference, 
repeating  the  conversation  in  detail.  ''Did  Stanton 
say  I  was  a  damned  fool?"  asked  Lincoln,  at  the  close 
of  the  recital.  "He  did,  sir,  and  repeated  it."  After 
a  moment's  pause,  the  President  looked  up  and  said: 
"If  Stanton  said  I  was  a  damned  fool,  then  I  must  be 
one,  for  he  is  nearly  always  right,  and  he  generally  says 
what  he  means.     I  will  step  over  and  see  him." 

On  one  occasion  (in  1863)  Dennis  Hanks,  Lincoln's 
boyhood  friend  and  cousin,  called  to  see  him  at  the 
White  House.  His  mission  brought  him  in  contact 
with  the  Secretary  for  War,  who  was  determined — and 
apparently  quite  rightly — not  to  accede  to  his  request, 
which  had  reference  to  the  release  of  some  soldiers 
who  had  brought  about  a  riot  at  Charleston,  in  which 
several  citizens  had  met  their  deaths.  Stanton  was 
greatly  incensed  at  Hanks'  intervention,  and  expressed 
the  view  that  "every  damned  one  of  them  should  be 
hung."  Dennis  took  away  a  decidedly  unfavorable  rec- 
ollection of  the  Secretary  for  War,  whom  he  described 
as  a  "frisky  little  Yankee  with  a  short  coat-tail."  "I 
asked  Abe,"  he  informed  Herndon  in  confidence,  "why 
he  did  not  kick  him  out.  I  told  him  he  was  too  'fresh' 
altogether."  Lincoln's  answer  was:  "  If  I  did,  Dennis,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  find  another  man  to  fill  his  place." 


114  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Chase,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  was  another 
member  of  his  Cabinet  with  whom  Lincoln  had  constant 
trouble,  and  for  whose  behavior  he  throughout  showed 
the  most  uniform  forbearance.  Lincoln  quite  rightly 
had  the  highest  opinion  of  Chase's  financial  abihties, 
but  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had  it  so  firmly  fixed 
in  his  own  mind  that  he  was  the  most  competent  mem- 
ber of  the  Cabinet  that  it  was  difficult  to  retain  him  in 
office  without  constant  and  continual  friction.  Chase, 
in  the  first  instance,  was  one  of  the  foremost  supporters 
of  General  M'Clellan,  and  subsequently  was  the  most 
bitter  of  all  in  his  denunciation  of  his  dilatory  tactics. 
He  was  perhaps  the  foremost  supporter  of  negro  eman- 
cipation in  the  Cabinet,  and  would  have  gladly  seen 
the  proposal  put  into  force  at  an  earlier  date  than 
Lincoln  thought  prudent.  At  a  later  date  the  critics 
of  the  Cabinet  found  a  ready  sympathizer  in  Chase, 
who  was  never  tired  of  expressing  very  decided  views 
as  to  his  own  capacity  and  their  incompetence.  Finally 
he  entered  into  an  intrigue  to  supplant  Lincoln  in  the 
Presidency,  in  spite  of  which  Lincoln  still  retained  him 
in  office.  In  reply  to  his  friends  who  complained  of  his 
overlooking  the  hostile  attitude  of  one  of  his  own 
colleagues,  ''I  have  determined,"  he  said,  "to  shut 
my  eyes  as  far  as  possible  to  everything  of  the  sort. 
Mr.  Chase  makes  a  good  Secretary,  and  I  shall  keep  him 
where  he  is.  If  he  becomes  President,  all  right.  I 
hope  we  may  never  have  a  worse  man."  Eventually 
his  retention  as  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  became  no 


LINCOLN  AND  HIS  CABINET  115 

longer  practicable.  He  interfered  in  other  people's 
departments  until  the  President  found  it  impossible  to 
reconcile  their  differences.  Finally  he  sent  in  his 
resignation,  fully  expecting  it  to  be  refused.  Lincoln 
replied  in  accepting  it:  ''Of  all  I  have  said  in  commen- 
dation of  your  ability  and  fidelity  I  have  nothing  to 
unsay,  yet  you  and  I  have  reached  a  point  of  mutual 
embarrassment  in  our  official  relations  which  it  seems 
cannot  be  overcome  or  longer  sustained  consistently 
with  the  public  service."  Lincoln's  magnanimity 
towards  the  man  who  had  so  constantly  traduced  and 
intrigued  against  him  went  so  far  as  to  grant  him  the 
appointment  of  Chief  Justice  when  this  fell  vacant, 
greatly  to  the  surprise  of  Chase's  friends,  who  could 
not  believe  his  unfriendly  attitude  would  have  been  so 
readily  forgiven. 

This  action  was  singularly  characteristic.  Lincoln's 
failure,  indeed,  to  bear  ill-will  against  those  who  had 
done  him  an  injury  seemed  to  many  almost  to  amount 
to  a  fault,  and  it  was  complained  of  him,  not  without 
some  show  of  justification,  that  he  was  more  generous 
to  his  enemies  than  to  his  friends.  Lincoln  hoped,  in 
the  formation  of  his  Cabinet,  to  conciliate  the  largest 
possible  amount  of  pubHc  opinion.  In  this  he  was 
successful,  but  his  selection  had  the  corresponding  dis- 
advantage of  bringing  together  a  number  of  men  whose 
views  on  most  political  questions  were  remarkably 
divergent.  This  has  always  been  one  of  the  draw- 
backs of  a  Coalition  Cabinet — the  more  sections  you 


116  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

conciliate,  the  more  internal  discord  there  must  be 
within  the  circle  of  the  Cabinet.  As  one  who  knew 
Lincoln  well  (Leonard  Swett)  observed  with  regard  to 
him,  after  his  death:  ''An  adhesion  of  all  forces  was 
indispensable  to  his  success,  and  the  success  of  the 
country.  Hence  he  husbanded  his  means  with  the 
greatest  nicety  of  calculation.  Adhesion  was  what  he 
wanted.  He  used  every  force  to  the  best  possible 
advantage.  He  never  wasted  anything,  and  would 
always  give  more  to  his  enemies  than  he  would  to 
his  friends.  And  the  reason  was  that  he  never  had 
anything  to  spare,  and  in  the  close  calculation  of 
attaching  the  factions  to  him  he  counted  upon  the 
abstract  ajffection  of  his  friends  as  an  element  to  be 
offset  against  some  gift  with  which  he  must  appease 
his  enemies.  ...  In  his  conduct  of  the  war  he  acted 
upon  the  theory  that  but  one  thing  was  necessary,  and 
that  was  a  united  North.  He  had  aU  shades  of  senti- 
ments and  opinions  to  deal  with,  and  the  consideration 
was  always  presented  to  his  mind,  'How  can  I  hold 
these  discordant  elements  together?'"  Lincoln's  tact 
and  conciliatory  demeanor  were  successful  in  accom- 
plishing this,  and  he  rightly  reahzed  that  it  was  a 
condition  precedent  to  winning  the  war. 

In  view  of  recent  discussions  in  England  as  to  the 
number  of  members  required  to  form  an  efficient  War 
Cabinet,  it  will  be  observed  that  the  number  of  Lin- 
coln's Cabinet  was  eight.  It  was  complained  to  him 
when  he  first  made  his  appointments  that  he  included 


LINCOLN  AND  HIS  CABINET  117 

four  Democrats  and  only  three  Republicans.  His  reply 
to  this  was  that  he  himself  was  a  Republican,  and  that 
he  "hoped  it  might  be  possible  for  him  to  be  present 
not  infrequently  at  the  Cabinet's  deliberations,  and 
thus  redress  the  balance!"  One  can  scarcely  believe 
that  even  Lincoln's  tact  would  have  been  equal  to  the 
task  of  efficiently  carrying  on  with  a  Cabinet  of  twenty- 
two,  especially  if  the  relations  of  the  remaining  fourteen 
had  been  as  difficult  of  adjustment  as  those  of  the 
ministers  actually  appointed. 

Of  the  other  members  of  the  Cabinet,  Montgomery 
Blair,  of  Maryland,  the  new  Postmaster-General,  repre- 
sented the  Border  State  aristocracy,  and  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Republican  party.  He  had  been 
soHcitor  of  the  Court  of  Claims  under  the  late  President 
Buchanan,  who  had  removed  him  from  office  on  ac- 
count of  his  opposition  to  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  He  was  a  useful  member  of  the  Cabinet 
and  a  stanch  supporter  of  Lincoln  himself,  and  favored 
generally  a  bold  and  energetic  pohcy — too  bold,  fre- 
quently, for  the  President's  cautious  temper.  He  had, 
however,  many  enemies,  and  was  constantly  coming 
into  collision  with  both  Stanton  and  Seward.  He  was 
reluctant  to  adopt  the  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
for  fear  that  it  would  drive  the  Border  States  over  to 
the  Confederacy,  and  on  this  account  was  one  of  the 
members  of  the  Cabinet  who  stood  out  against  it  to 
the  last.  In  1864,  when  the  war  was  drawing  to  a  close, 
he  was  anxious  to  secure  a  compromise  with  the  South, 


118  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

and  being  on  friendly  terms  with  a  number  of  the  lead- 
ing Southern  politicians,  believed  that  the  opening  of 
negotiations  through  his  means  would  lead  to  some 
practical  result.  When  his  views  on  this  matter  be- 
came known  they  led  to  a  measure  of  alarm  on  the 
part  of  those  who  reahzed  the  danger  of  an  inconclusive 
peace.  President  Lincoln  allowed  Blair  to  see  what  he 
could  do  in  the  matter,  but  gave  him  no  official  au- 
thority as  a  negotiator  and  had  no  faith  in  the  utility 
of  his  mission,  which  eventually  came  to  nothing. 
Lincoln  doubtless  felt  that  this  was  the  best  way  of 
satisfying  Blair  of  the  fact  that  he  was  laboring  under 
a  delusion. 

In  spite  of  his  quarrels  with  other  members  of  the 
Administration,  and  his  suspicions  of  the  motives  of 
many  leading  members  of  the  Republican  party,  which 
he  was  never  tired  of  insinuating  to  the  President  him- 
self, Blair  remained  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  for  up- 
wards of  three  years.  He  had  always  assured  the 
President,  in  view  of  the  disputes  with  his  colleagues, 
that  he  would  be  pleased  to  resign  his  position  in  case 
the  difficulties  arising  from  his  retention  proved  too 
great  an  embarrassment  to  Lincoln.  Finally  Lincoln 
felt  himself  compelled  to  accept  this  offer  of  with- 
drawal, rather  than  continue  a  state  of  affairs  in  which 
constant  friction  seemed  inevitable.  In  writing  to  ask 
him  to  resign  Lincoln  observed:  ''You  know  very  well 
that  this  request  proceeds  from  no  dissatisfaction  of 
mine  with  you  personally  or  officially.     Your  uniform 


LINCOLN  AND  HIS  CABINET  119 

kindness  has  been  unsurpassed  by  that  of  any  other 
friend.'^  After  his  resignation  Blair's  loyalty  to  Lin- 
coln continued  unabated,  and  he  took  the  field  on  his 
behalf  during  the  campaign  for  his  reelection. 

Not  the  least  capable  member  of  the  Administration 
was  Gideon  Welles,  of  Connecticut,  Secretary  of  the 
Navy.  Lincoln  first  met  Gideon  Welles  in  a  purely 
accidental  manner,  after  a  speech  he  had  been  deHver- 
ing  at  Hartford,  Connecticut,  in  the  spring  of  1860. 
William  Eleroy  Curtis  ^  narrates  the  story  of  their  first 
meeting: — 

"As  he  approached  his  hotel,  Lincoln  stepped  into  a  book- 
stall, where  a  gentleman  who  had  been  in  his  audience  the 
evening  before  approached  and  introduced  himself.  There 
seemed  to  be  a  mutual  attraction,  and  for  two  hours  they 
discussed  various  subjects  of  interest — politics,  law,  and 
literature.  The  next  time  they  met  was  after  the  Chicago 
Convention,  to  which  Mr.  Welles  was  a  delegate,  and  during 
the  Campaign  they  exchanged  frequent  letters,  until  Lincoln 
was  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  fitness,  availability,  and 
character  of  the  Connecticut  lawyer  for  a  position  in  his 
Cabinet.  The  special  knowledge  of  maritime  law  shown 
by  the  latter  seems  to  have  suggested  his  assignment  to  the 
Navy  Department.'^ 

The  Navy  played  a  most  important,  tho  for  long 
periods  a  silent  part  in  the  conduct  of  the  war.  The 
eventual  effect  of  the  Northern  campaign  was  to  cut  off 
the  South  from  its  resources,  and  the  command  of  the 

1  "The  True  Abraham  Lincoln,"  p.  196. 


120  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

sea,  which  was  secured  early  in  the  war  by  the  North, 
necessarily  contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  this  end. 
As  Lord  Charnwood  well  says :  " The  subjugation  of  the 
South  began  by  a  process  necessarily  slow  and  much 
interrupted,  whereby,  having  been  blockaded  by  sea, 
it  was  surrounded  by  land,  cut  off  from  its  Western 
territory,  and  deprived  of  its  main  internal  lines  of  com- 
munication." Gideon  Welles  and  his  able  Ueutenant, 
Fox,  deserve  no  small  measure  of  credit  for  bringing 
about  this  result.  Welles  himself  was  a  man  of  great 
decision  of  character  and  executive  ability,  but  his  re- 
lations with  Seward,  with  whom  he  came  into  collision 
through  the  latter's  interference  in  naval  affairs,  were 
one  more  source  of  constant  friction  in  the  Cabinet. 
In  spite  of  this,  both  retained  their  posts  until  Lin- 
coln's death. 


Chapter  X 

THE  WAR 

The  first  news  that  reached  Lincoln  immediately  after 
the  inauguration  was  that  Fort  Sumter,  off  Charleston, 
on  the  coast  of  South  Carolina,  would  be  forced  to 
capitulate  to  the  Southern  forces  unless  promptly  re- 
inforced and  re  victualed.  The  majority  of  the  Cab- 
inet were  opposed  to  taking  definite  steps  in  the  matter. 
General  Winfield  Scott  being  questioned  on  the  military 
position,  had  given  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  fort 
should  be  evacuated.  The  opponents  of  its  retention 
argued  that  the  blame  lay  with  the  outgoing  adminis- 
tration, who  had  not  taken  steps  in  time. 

Lincoln  was  most  anxious  to  avoid  anything  in  the 
nature  of  provocation.  Finally,  after  some  hesitation, 
he  decided  to  give  instructions  to  revictual  the  fort, 
but  not  to  send  troops.  It  was,  however,  already  too 
late.  Beauregard,  the  Southern  general,  received  or- 
ders to  reduce  the  fort,  and  summoned  Anderson,  who 
was  in  command,  to  surrender.  Anderson,  now  almost 
starved  out,  replied  that  unless  he  received  supplies 
and  instructions  he  would  surrender  on  15th  April. 

How  it  happened  is  not  known,  whether  by  accident 

121 


122  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

or  through  intention  to  offer  definite  provocation,  but, 
in  spite  of  Anderson's  reply,  the  Confederate  batteries 
opened  fire  on  12th  April.  Fort  Sumter  became  im- 
mediately untenable.  Anderson  capitulated  and 
marched  out  on  Sunday,  14th  April,  with  the  honors 
of  war.  The  South  had  now  definitely  assumed  the 
offensive,  and  in  reply  to  the  challenge  the  North 
sprang  to  arms. 

It  is  surely  well  for  the  world  in  general  that  in  cer- 
tain grave  crises  of  its  history  the  inmaediate  futm'e  is 
hidden  by  an  impenetrable  veil.  The  Northern  States 
when  they  engaged  in  the  conflict  never  dreamed  of  the 
gravity  of  the  task  that  lay  before  them.  Many  be- 
heved  that  the  war  would  be  over  in  a  few  short  months. 
Few  suspected  that  it  would  outlast  a  year.  The  idea 
that  it  might  conceivably  endure  for  four  whole  years 
was  nowhere  entertained  as  within  the  bounds  of  pos- 
sibility. In  this  respect  there  hes  a  very  close  parallel 
between  the  war  between  North  and  South  and  the 
great  World  War.  Would  England,  one  may  well 
ask,  have  stept  into  the  breach  had  the  Cabinet  of 
the  day  realized  what  was  before  them?  That  they 
would  have  been  well  advised  to  do  so  in  any  case 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  but  that  they  would  have  ven- 
tured to  face  so  stupendous  a  task  seems  in  the  highest 
degree  unlikely. 

In  both  cases  the  marked  superiority  of  one  side  in 
material  resources  and  in  the  number  of  men  at  their 
disposal  seemed  to  render  impossible  any  doubt  as  to 


THE  WAR  123 

the  ultimate  result.  Surprize  in  each  case  was  felt  at 
the  confidence  of  the  enemy  in  their  own  power,  and, 
as  it  seemed,  their  rashness  in  defying  the  heavy  odds 
against  them.  In  both  cases  these  calculations  proved 
to  have  overlooked  vital  factors  in  the  situation.  At 
the  time  of  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  in  America, 
the  North  had  more  than  double  the  population  of  the 
South,  and  of  this  Southern  population  a  considerable 
portion  were  slaves  who,  it  was  known,  could  not  be 
enhsted.  The  North,  again,  was  far  richer  in  material 
resources  and  soon  found  itself  in  a  position  to  drive  the 
Southern  fleet  from  the  seas.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
objects  of  the  war  imposed  upon  the  North  a  far 
greater  task  than  devolved  upon  the  South.  All  the 
South  required  to  do  was  to  retain  and  defend  its  own 
territory.  If  the  Union  were  to  be  maintained,  the 
North  must  not  merely  win  isolated  battles,  but  must 
completely  subjugate  the  Southern  territory.  The 
South,  again,  was  much  better  situated  with  a  view 
to  defense  than  the  North.  It  could  operate  on 
interior  lines,  and  the  Confederacy  could  hardly  be 
gravely  weakened  by  the  occupation  by  the  North  of 
any  important  strategic  centers. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war  neither  side  possest 
an  army  of  any  consequence,  the  actual  army  in  the 
service  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole  then  consisting 
of  only  16,000  officers  and  men.  The  armies  with 
which  the  war  was  eventually  fought  out  had  to  be 
called  up  and  trained  while  the  campaign  was  in  prog- 


124  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

ress.  The  Southerner,  who  had  Hved  a  more  outdoor  Ufe 
than  his  Northern  neighbor,  probably  took  more  readily 
to  the  pursuit  of  arms.  One  factor  above  all  others 
helped  the  South  the  first  half  of  the  campaign  to  an 
extent  that  can  hardly  be  overestimated,  and  this  was 
perhaps  more  due  to  pure  luck  than  to  any  more 
definite  cause.  While  the  North  was  seeking  in  vain 
for  two  long  years  for  some  one  who  might  be  qualified 
to  command  its  armies  and  lead  it  to  victory,  the  South 
commenced  its  campaigns  under  the  generalship  of 
Lee  and  "Stonewall"  Jackson,  whose  efficiency  as  com- 
manders in  the  field  was  never  in  doubt  or  question. 
Lee,  indeed,  was  opposed  to  the  war  from  the  com- 
mencement, and  it  was  only  with  much  reluctance  that 
he  sided  with  the  South.  Of  Lee's  preeminent  military 
qualifications  there  can  be  no  doubt,  and  the  late  Lord 
Wolseley  was  inclined  to  write  them  higher  than  those 
of  Moltke.  General  Scott,  on  the  other  hand,  who 
was  put  in  command  of  the  Northern  forces,  was 
obviously  from  the  first  too  old  and  infirm  for  his  very 
arduous  duties,  and  his  successor,  George  B.  M'Clellan, 
on  whom  the  greatest  hopes  had  been  placed,  in  spite 
of  his  ample  opportunities,  did  Httle  to  justify  them. 
It  is  hardly  open  to  doubt  that  Lincoln  retained  him  in 
command  long  after  his  incapacity  had  become  obvious. 
He  labored,  however,  under  the  disadvantage  of  not 
knowing  whom  to  put  in  his  place,  and  hesitated  to 
dismiss  a  man  who,  at  least  during  the  earlier  part  of 
the  war,  had  become  a  sort  of  popular  idol.     M'Clellan, 


THE  WAR  125 

indeed,  took  over  the  command  of  the  Northern  armies 
amid  a  burst  of  popular  applause  and  enthusiasm.  He 
appeared  to  the  man  in  the  street  to  be  the  heaven- 
sent savior  of  the  popular  cause,  while  in  reahty 
possessing  nothing  more  startling  than  a  genius  for 
popularity,  a  certain  capacity  for  organization,  and  a 
confidence  in  his  own  abilities  which  was  far  from 
justified. 

On  the  day  after  the  bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter, 
Lincoln  issued  a  proclamation  calling  upon  the  States 
of  the  North  to  furnish  75,000  men  for  the  suppression 
of  an  unlawful  combination.  So  unfitted  was  the  Con- 
stitution to  cope  with  the  situation  created  by  the 
Civil  War,  that  the  law  actually  did  not  empower  the 
President  to  call  out  the  militia,  for  such  it  was,  for  a 
longer  period  than  three  months.  This  proclamation 
was,  accordingly,  shortly  followed  by  another,  appeal- 
ing for  volunteers  to  enlist  for  three  years'  service. 

The  first  incident  in  the  war  was  the  Battle  of  Bull 
Run,  which  involved  a  somewhat  serious  reverse  for 
the  forces  of  the  North.  The  Southern  army,  under 
General  Beauregard,  lay  near  Bull  Run  River,  some 
twenty  miles  from  Washington,  covering  the  railway 
junction  of  Manassas  on  the  line  to  Richmond,  the 
Southern  capital.  General  Scott  was  unwilling  to 
attack,  owing  to  the  unpreparedness  of  the  Northern 
forces,  but  there  was  a  very  general  demand  on  the 
part  of  the  North  for  action  to  be  taken,  and  the 
Cabinet  was  anxious  to  gain  an  early  victory  for  po- 


126  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

litical  reasons.  General  Patterson  was  at  this  time 
opposing  a  Southern  force  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley. 
The  plan  was  for  General  M'Dowell  to  attack  the  Con- 
federates at  Manassas,  while  Patterson  prevented  John- 
ston's army  from  joining  Beauregard.  Patterson,  how- 
ever, conspicuously  failed  to  do  this.  The  result  was 
that  M'Dowell  found  himself  confronted  with  the  con- 
joined Southern  armies.  Both  sides  of  course  con- 
sisted of  untrained  levies.  The  attempt  to  drive 
Beauregard  from  the  position  he  had  occupied  proved 
too  much  for  M'Dowell,  and  in  the  upshot  the  Northern 
soldiers  retreated  in  disorder,  and,  in  fact,  in  some- 
thing of  a  panic.  Johnston,  however,  who  now  took 
over  the  command  of  the  Southern  forces,  did  not  feel 
himself  in  a  position  to  follow  up  the  results  of  his 
victory,  and  the  military  outcome  of  the  engagement 
was  not  of  great  practical  consequence.  It  had  the 
effect,  however,  of  rudely  shattering  the  confidence 
of  the  North,  and  in  this  way  had  a  salutary  effect 
in  leading  to  much  more  energetic  measures  than  had 
hitherto  been  taken.  Scott  blamed  himself  bitterly 
for  consenting  to  act  against  his  better  judgment,  and 
Lincoln  himself  seems  to  have  felt  that  the  commander 
was  to  a  great  extent  responsible  for  the  reverse  through 
decUning  to  insist  on  his  views  in  a  stronger  manner. 
This  preliminary  engagement  was  followed  by  a  long 
period  of  inactivity  on  both  sides  as  far  as  the  actual 
fighting  was  concerned,  both  combatants  being  engaged 
in  organizing  their  respective  armies  in  view  of  the 


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THE  WAR  127 

coming  struggle.  Neither  clearly  felt  that  it  was  in 
a  position  to  strike  anything  in  the  nature  of  a  decisive 
blow.  The  lack  of  military  discipline,  as  was  not 
surprizing  under  the  circumstances,  was  a  grave  ob- 
stacle on  both  sides. 

Not  long  after  this,  in  November,  1861,  General 
Scott  surrendered  his  command,  wliich  was  conferred, 
as  above  stated,  on  General  M'Clellan.  His  first  and, 
as  it  proved  in  the  upshot,  his  most  useful  work  w^as  the 
organization  of  the  army  of  the  North.  He  certainly 
showed  no  anxiety  to  repeat  the  blunder  of  launching 
into  hostilities  with  untrained  troops,  and,  indeed, 
rather  went  to  the  other  extreme,  always  tending  to 
exaggerate  the  number  of  the  enemy  opposed  to  him, 
and  fearing  to  engage  them  without  vastly  superior 
forces.  The  early  part  of  the  following  year  brought 
about  a  recommencement  of  hostilities,  and  the  North- 
ern arms  were  generally  successful  in  the  West.  Ken- 
tucky, till  now  a  debatable  ground  between  the  two 
armies,  was  secured  for  the  cause  of  the  North.  The 
Federal  gunboats  pushed  up  the  Tennessee  and  Cum- 
berland rivers  into  the  State  of  Kentucky,  took  Fort 
Henry,  on  the  6th  February,  and,  with  the  aid  of  the 
land  forces  under  General  Grant,  occupied  also  Fort 
Donelson,  16th  February,  capturing  some  10,000 
prisoners.  Following  on  this,  Nashville,  the  capital 
of  Tennessee,  surrendered  to  the  Northern  army  on  the 
23rd  of  the  same  month. 

Further  progress  was  made  down  the  Mississippi, 


128  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  greater  part  of  Missouri  being  cleared  of  the  enemy, 
and  the  troops  of  the  Union  advancing  into  Arkansas, 
where  a  battle  was  fought  at  Pea  Ridge,  which  ter- 
minated in  the  complete  rout  of  the  Southern  forces. 
Finally  Admiral  Farragut,  advancing  to  the  mouths  of 
the  Mississippi,  after  six  days'  bombardment  captured 
New  Orleans  on  28th  April. 

Meanwhile,  from  21st  July,  1861  (the  date  of  the 
battle  of  Bull  Run),  to  March,  1862,  the  main  aimy 
of  the  North  continued  to  remain  on  the  Potomac  op- 
posed to  the  Southern  army  of  Joseph  E.  Johnston, 
which  was  drilling  at  Manassas.     Further  troops  were 
constantly  being  sent  to  reinforce  M'Clellan,  whose 
army  by  October  amounted  to  147,000  men,  whereas 
Johnston    had    barely    47,000    under   his    command. 
Johnston  was  naturally  expecting  M'Clellan  to  attack, 
and    there    was    danger    of    his    right    flank    being 
turned  and  his  railway  communications  cut.     Finally, 
in  February,  as  his  position  became  too  precarious, 
he  retreated  unmolested  behind  the  Rapidan  River, 
thirty  miles  farther  south.     No  attempt  whatever  was 
made  by  M'Clellan  to  molest  him,  and  gi'eat  surprize 
and  annoyance  were  felt  in  the  North  that  what  ap- 
peared to  be  an  excellent  opportunity  had  been  missed. 
M'Clellan  seems  to  have  been  under  a  total  misappre- 
hension as  to  the  forces  of  the  enemy,  whose  numbers 
he  had  exaggerated  in  his  own  mind.     Lincoln,  over  and 
over  again,  urged  him  to  attack,  but  all  to  no  purpose. 
All  M'Clellan  could  be  induced  to  do  was  to  abuse 


THE  WAR  129 

the  Government  for  incompetence,  and  to  demand 
further  reinforcements.  On  27th  January  Lincoln  pub- 
lished a  general  War  Order  in  his  capacity  of  Com- 
mander-in-Chief for  a  forward  movement  of  the  army 
on  the  Potomac.  For  a  moment  M'Clellan  made  up  his 
mind  to  carry  out  Lincoln's  instructions,  and  then 
changed  it  again.  Finally,  a  decision  was  arrived  at 
to  land  troops  at  Fort  Monroe,  which  lies  at  the  end 
of  the  peninsula  that  juts  out  between  the  estuaries  of 
the  York  and  James  rivers. 

On  2nd  Apiil  M'Clellan  himself  landed,  and  the 
Peninsula  Campaign,  which  it  was  anticipated  would 
end  in  the  capture  of  Richmond,  was  conmienced. 
M'Dowell  was  retained  by  Lincoln's  orders  with  a  force 
sufficient  for  the  defense  of  Washington,  greatly,  as  it 
appears,  to  M'Clellan's  annoyance.  M'Clellan  com- 
menced his  expedition  in  comLiand  of  100,000  men,  and 
40,000  more  troops  were  subsequently  dispatched  to 
him.  After  he  had  been  some  two  months  in  the 
peninsula,  making  gradual  progress,  he  was  unexpect- 
edly attacked  by  Joseph  Johnston,  but  defeated  him  on 
31st  May.  A  portion  of  his  army  pursued  the  enemy 
to  within  four  miles  of  Richmond,  and  it  was  contended 
that  by  a  rapid  movement  M'Clellan  might  have  cap- 
tured the  city;  but  rapidity  of  movement  was  never  one 
of  his  strong  points.  Stonewall  Jackson  was  now  ma- 
king a  movement  with  a  Southern  army  which  threat- 
ened the  position  of  Washington,  and  Lincoln,  who  had 
decided  to  send  M'Dowell  to  reinforce  M'Clellan,  felt 


130  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

himself  compelled  to  abandon  the  idea.  M'Clellan's 
advance  on  Richmond  was,  however,  slowly  progressing. 
A  series  of  battles  took  place  (26th  June  to  2nd  July) 
between  his  forces  and  those  of  General  Lee,  of  a  some- 
what indecisive  character.  M'Clellan's  left  wing  even- 
tually succeeded  in  winning  a  strong  position  over- 
looking Richmond,  but  in  the  upshot  he  found  his  right 
flank  threatened  by  reinforcements  which  had  reached 
the  Southern  army,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
his  position  was  a  perilous  one.  On  2nd  July  he  with- 
drew his  whole  force  to  Harrison's  Landing,  some  way 
up  the  James  estuary,  having,  with  the  cooperation  of 
the  navy,  effected  a  transfer  of  his  base. 

M'Clellan  now  advised  Lincoln  that  in  order  to  cap- 
ture Richmond  he  must  have  further  large  reinforce- 
ments. This  meant  withdrawing  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  army  which  was  defending  Washington. 
The  alternative  was  retreat.  After  careful  considera- 
tion, Lincoln  decided  to  instruct  M'Clellan  to  with- 
draw altogether  from  the  peninsula.  M'Clellan's  army 
was  transferred  to  General  Pope,  who  was  in  charge 
of  the  defense  of  Washington.  Pope  himself,  now  in 
command  of  some  150,000  men,  pushed  forward  into 
Virginia.  Opposed  to  him  was  Lee,  with  probably  not 
more  than  55,000  men.  In  face  of  this  vast  superiority 
Lee  boldly  divided  his  forces  and  sent  Jackson  with 
one  portion  of  them  by  a  circuitous  route  to  cut  Pope's 
communications  with  Washington.  On  29  th- 30th 
August  Pope  turned  on  Lee  in  the  ill-omened  neigh- 


THE  WAR  131 

borhood  of  Bull  Run,  and  sustained  a  heavy  defeat, 
in  spite  of  his  numerical  superiority.  Pope  himseK, 
abandoning  hope,  begged  to  be  withdrawn  within  the 
defenses  of  the  capital,  and  was  relieved  of  his  com- 
mand. Lincoln  now  directed  M'Clellan  to  take  com- 
mand. Information  accidentally  reached  M'Clellan  of 
Lee's  movements,  and  had  he  taken  advantage  of  it,  he 
could  have  crushed  Lee's  and  Jackson's  armies  in 
detail.  He  was,  however,  too  slow.  They  were  al- 
lowed to  join  forces  once  more,  and  the  Northern  army 
came  up  with  them  near  the  Antietam  Creek,  a  tribu- 
tary of  the  Potomac,  some  sixty  miles  northwest  of 
Washington.  Battles  took  place  on  the  14th  and  17th 
September  between  the  two  armies,  first  at  South 
Mountain  and  then  at  Antietam. 

In  the  latter  battle  both  sides  lost  very  heavily, 
but  the  Southern  army  found  itself  compelled  to  re- 
treat, which  it  did  unmolested  into  Virginia.  Lin- 
coln issued  instructions  to  M'Clellan  to  follow  up  this 
partial  success  and  cross  the  Potomac  in  pursuit.  He 
declined  to  do  so,  thus  allowing  a  golden  opportunity 
of  striking  a  decisive  blow  to  pass  by,  and  was  there- 
upon superseded  by  General  Burnside.  This  change  in 
the  command  did  not,  however,  turn  the  tide  in  favor 
of  the  North.  Burnside  met  with  a  severe  reverse 
before  the  Confederate  works  of  Fredericksburg  on  13th 
December,  and  this  was  followed  by  a  fresh  withdrawal 
of  the  Northern  army  beyond  the  Rappahannock. 
Sherman,  too,  met  with  a  defeat  before  Vicksburg  on 


132  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

26th  to  29th  December.  Holly  Springs,  Mississippi, 
was  surrendered  to  the  Confederates,  19th  December, 
with  a  large  accumulation  of  stores;  and  General 
Grant,  in  consequence,  found  himself  compelled  to  fall 
back,  being  prevented  from  joining  hands,  as  he  had 
hoped,  with  General  Sherman.  Meanwhile  General 
Foster  had  met  with  a  measure  of  success  in  North 
Carolina,  and  the  battle  of  Murfreesborough  (in  Ten- 
nessee), after  continuing  from  31st  December  to  4th 
January,  resulted  in  a  victory  for  the  Federal  arms, 
General  M'Cook,  in  command  of  the  Southern  forces, 
being  compelled  to  beat  a  hasty  retreat. 


Chapter  XI 

NEGRO   EMANCIPATION— THE   TURN   OF 

THE    TIDE 

While  the  fortunes  of  war  were  thus  fluctuating,  and 
while  the  prospect  of  a  speedy  victory  for  the  North 
was  becoming  month  by  month  more  remote,  the  agi- 
tation for  negro  emancipation  was  steadily  gaining 
ground.  The  President  was  being  constantly  beset 
by  deputations  and  by  individual  men  of  influence 
and  repute,  who  prest  upon  him  the  necessity  for 
a  proclamation  of  emancipation.  On  the  13th  Septem- 
ber, 1862,  he  received  a  deputation  on  the  subject  from 
all  the  religious  denominations  in  Chicago.  Some  of 
the  ministers  in  this  deputation  even  went  so  far  as  to 
assure  him  that  they  had  authority  from  heaven  to 
command  him  in  God's  name  to  emancipate  the  slaves. 
In  reply  Lincoln  told  them  that  he  was  '*  approached 
with  the  most  opposite  opinions  and  advice,  and  that 
by  religious  men  who  are  equally  certain  that  they 
represent  the  divine  will."  He  was  (he  said)  sure  that 
either  one  or  other  class  was  mistaken  in  that  behef, 

and  perhaps  in  some  respects  both.     *'I  hope"  (he 

133 


134  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

continued)  "that  it  will  not  be  irreverent  for  me  to  say 
that  if  it  is  probable  that  God  would  reveal  his  will 
to  others  on  a  point  so  connected  with  my  duty,  it 
might  be  supposed  He  would  reveal  it  directly  to  me. 
I  do  not"  (he  proceeded)  "want  to  issue  a  document 
that  the  whole  world  will  see  must  necessarily  be 
inoperative,  like  the  Pope's  Bull  against  the  comet. 
Now,  do  not  misunderstand  me  because  I  have  men- 
tioned these  objections.  They  indicate  difficulties  that 
have  thus  far  prevented  me  acting  in  some  way  such 
as  you  desire.  I  have  not  decided  against  a  proclama- 
tion of  liberty  to  the  slaves,  but  hold  the  matter  under 
advisement,  and  I  can  assure  you  that  the  subject  is 
on  my  mind  by  day  and  night  more  than  any  other. 
Whatever  shall  appear  to  be  God's  will,  I  will  do." 

Lincoln's  view  was  that  it  was  his  first  duty  to  save 
the  Union,  and  not  either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery. 
It  was,  however,  steadily  becoming  clearer  to  him  that, 
quite  apart  from  his  anxiety  to  solve  the  slave  problem, 
the  saving  of  the  Union  itself  necessitated  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  slaves.  The  Northern  outlook  had  be- 
come darker  and  darker,  and  apart  from  some  such 
action  on  his  part  Lincoln  was  beginning  to  feel  that 
the  situation  was  a  hopeless  one.  He  was  determined, 
in  any  case,  "not  to  surrender  the  game  leaving  any 
available  card  unplayed."  He  did  not  feel  that  he  was 
prevented  from  emancipating  the  slaves  on  constitu- 
tional gi'ounds,  as  he  took  the  view  that  as  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  Army  and  Navy  in  time  of  war 


NEGRO  EMANCIPATION— TIDE  TURNS   135 

(a  position  the  President  ipso  facto  occupied)  he  had  the 
right  to  take  any  measure  which  might  best  insure 
the  triumph  of  the  Union.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  only 
a  month  or  two  before  the  Chicago  deputation  had 
interviewed  him,  he  had  almost  decided  on  this  emanci- 
pation pohcy.  About  the  end  of  July,  1862,  he  called 
a  Cabinet  meeting  together  to  deal  with  this  very 
subject,  and  submitted  to  it  the  original  draft  of  the 
proposed  proclamation.  All  members  of  the  Cabinet 
were  present  except  Blair,  the  Postmaster-General. 
Lincoln  in  effect  told  the  Cabinet  that  he  had  decided 
to  issue  the  proclamation,  and  various  suggestions  were 
offered  by  Cabinet  Ministers  with  regard  to  alterations 
and  emendations  in  the  wording.  While  the  meeting 
was  being  held,  Blair  came  in  and  opposed  the  pohcy 
suggested,  on  the  ground  that  it  would  lead  to  the 
Government  losing  the  coming  autumn  elections. 
Finally,  after  every  one  else  had  exprest  his  views, 
Secretary  Seward  spoke  as  follows: — 

"Mr.  President,  I  approve  the  proclamation,  but  I  ques- 
tion the  expediency  of  its  issue  at  this  juncture.  The  de- 
pression of  the  pubUc  mind,  consequent  upon  our  repeated 
reverses,  is  so  great  that  I  fear  the  effect  of  so  important  a 
step.  It  may  be  viewed  as  the  last  measure  of  an  exhausted 
Government — a  cry  for  help;  the  Government  stretching 
forth  its  hands  to  Ethiopia,  instead  of  Ethiopia  stretching 
forth  her  hands  to  the  Government.  My  idea  Ls  that  it 
would  be  considered  our  last  shriek  on  the  retreat.  Now, 
while  I  approve  the  measure,  I  suggest,  sir,  that  you  post- 
pone its  issue  until  you  can  i^ve  it  to  the  coimtry  supported 


136  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

by  military  success,  instead  of  issuing  it,  as  would  be  the 
case  now,  upon  the  greatest  disasters  of  the  war." 

Lincoln  was  imprest  by  the  force  of  Seward's  argu- 
ments, and  decided  to  put  the  draft  of  the  proclamation 
aside  for  the  time  being.  When,  however,  the  news 
reached  him  of  the  battle  of  Antietam,  and  he  reahzed 
that  this  involved  the  retreat  of  the  Southern  forces, 
he  made  up  his  mind  to  wait  no  longer.  Having 
j&nished  the  second  draft  of  the  proclamation,  he  called 
the  Cabinet  together  the  fifth  day  after  the  battle, 
22nd  September,  and,  after  being  duly  passed,  it  was 
published  on  the  following  Monday.  The  first  procla- 
mation was  indeed  merely  an  announcement  of  what  was 
intended,  but  on  the  first  of  January  of  the  following 
year,  I860,  the  President  signed  the  further  proclama- 
tion required  to  put  the  preliminary  announcement 
into  operation.  This  proclamation  declared  that  ''in 
virtue  of  the  power  vested  in  him  as  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States  in 
time  of  actual  armed  rebelHon  against  the  authority  and 
government  of  the  United  States,  and  as  a  fit  and 
necessary  war  measure  for  suppressing  the  said  rebel- 
lion, all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  the  States  of 
Arkansas,  Louisiana  (thirteen  counties  excepted),  Mis- 
sissippi, Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia,  South  Carolina, 
North  Carolina,  and  Virginia  (the  forty-eight  counties 
of  Western  Virginia  and  seven  others  excepted)  are  and 
henceforward  shall  be  free,  and  that  the  executive 
Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  miUtary 


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NEGRO  EMANCIPATION— TIDE  TURNS   137 

and  naval  authorities  thereof,  will  recognize  and  main- 
tain the  freedom  of  the  said  persons/'  The  proclama- 
tion further  declared  that  ^'such  persons  as  were  of 
suitable  condition  would  be  received  into  the  army- 
service  of  the  United  States  to  garrison  forts,  positions, 
stations,  and  other  places,  and  to  man  vessels  of  all 
sorts  in  the  said  service.'^  The  President,  in  conclud- 
ing his  proclamation,  invoked  "the  considerate  judg- 
ment of  mankind  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty 
God  upon  an  act  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of 
justice  warranted  by  the  situation  and  the  military 
necessity/' 

The  eventual  effect  of  this  proclamation  was  to  enroll 
no  less  than  300,000  negroes  in  the  armies  of  the 
North.  Its  immediate  effect  was  in  some  ways  no  less 
noteworthy.  The  North  had  been  living  in  constant 
dread  lest  the  Southern  Confederacy  should  be  officially 
recognized  by  the  European  Powers.  It  was  known 
that  the  Emperor  Napoleon  was  anxious  to  do  this, 
and  that  European  nations  were  hesitating  what  Hne 
to  adopt.  It  was  now  no  longer  possible  for  any 
European  country  to  dispute  the  fact  that  the  cause 
of  the  North  was  the  cause  of  freedom.  Nothing 
during  the  whole  war  tended  so  much  to  discourage  the 
supporters  of  the  South  in  England  as  well  as  on  the 
Continent,  or  to  put  heart  into  the  partizans  of  the 
North,  who  were  now  in  a  position  to  maintain  openly 
that  the  cause  of  the  Union  was  the  cause  of  justice 
and  liberty.     A  special  message  of  congratulation  was 


138  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

sent  to  the  President  by  the  cotton  workers  of  Man- 
chester and  the  North,  who  had  been  specially  hard  hit 
by  the  war,  warmly  congratulating  him  on  the  step 
which  he  had  taken.  Lincoln  replied  in  a  most  ap- 
preciative spirit,  saying  that  he  well  understood  that 
the  duty  of  seK-preservation  rested  solely  with  the 
American  people,  but  that  he  realized  also  that  the 
favor  or  disfavor  of  foreign  opinion  might  have  a 
material  influence  in  enlarging  or  prolonging  the  strug- 
gle. "It  has"  (he  continued)  "been  often  and  steadily 
represented  that  the  attempt  to  overthrow  this  govern- 
ment, which  was  built  upon  the  foundation  of  human 
rights,  and  to  substitute  for  it  one  which  should  rest 
exclusively  on  the  basis  of  human  slavery,  was  hkely 
to  obtain  the  favor  of  Europe.  .  .  .  Under  the  circum- 
stances, I  cannot  but  regard  your  decisive  utterances 
upon  the  question  as  an  instance  of  sublime  Christian 
heroism.  It  is  indeed  an  energetic  and  reinspiring  as- 
surance of  the  inherent  power  of  truth  and  of  the 
ultimate  and  universal  triumph  of  justice,  humanity, 
and  freedom.'* 

It  is  evidence  of  Lincoln's  profound  innate  religious 
temperament  that  he  told  Chase  that  he  had  made  a 
solemn  vow  that  if  General  Lee  were  driven  back  from 
Pennsylvania  he  would  crown  the  result  by  the  declara- 
tion of  freedom  to  the  slaves.  It  was  in  fulfilment  of 
this  vow  that  the  proclamation  was  issued.  It  will  be 
realized  that  tho  this  proclamation  was  a  step  of 
the  utmost  importance,  it  did  not  actually  abolish 


NEGRO  EMANCIPATION— TIDE  TURNS    139 

slavery.  It  merely  proclaimed  the  freedom  of  all  the 
slaves  within  the  States  in  rebellion  against  the  Union. 
The  larger  measure  was  to  come  later.  To  have  done 
more  than  this  by  proclamation  would  have  transcended 
the  powers  of  the  President  even  in  time  of  war.  The 
justification  for  the  step  taken  was  that  it  was  a 
miUtary  necessity. 

In  the  meantime  the  military  situation  continued  to 
be  far  from  satisfactory,  and  the  first  six  months  of 
1863  saw  further  reverses  to  the  cause  of  the  Union. 
Burnside  had  been  relieved  of  his  command  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  after  his  reverse  before  Fred- 
ericksburg, and  was  replaced  by  General  Hooker.  The 
change  of  command  failed,  however,  to  change  the  for- 
tunes of  war.  Hooker  attempted  a  second  advance  on 
Richmond,  but  only  met  with  new  disasters,  and  in  a 
series  of  battles  at  Chancellorsville  in  the  first  week  of 
May  found  himself  forced  to  retreat  with  a  loss  of 
some  18,000  men.  General  Grant  was  more  successful. 
About  the  same  date  he  commenced  a  new  movement, 
landing  his  forces  at  a  point  on  the  Mississippi  some 
sixty-five  miles  south  of  Vicksburg,  which  had  long  re- 
sisted the  attacks  of  the  Union  forces.  From  this  point 
he  proceeded  to  march  in  a  northerly  direction,  com- 
pelhng  the  evacuation  by  the  Southern  armies  of  some 
strong  fortifications  at  Grand  Gulf  and  dispersing  the 
army  which,  under  General  Joseph  Johnston,  had  ad- 
vanced to  relieve  the  place.  This  left  the  city  of  Jack- 
son, the  capital  of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  at  the  mercy 


140  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

of  the  Northern  general,  who  took  possession  of  the 
place  with  its  large  stores  of  suppKes  and  artillery. 
Advancing  further,  he  reached  Vicksburg  about  the 
middle  of  May  and,  after  a  preliminary  unsuccessful  at- 
tempt to  storm  the  place,  proceeded  to  invest  it  closely. 
The  slow  progress  of  the  Northern  arms  was  in  the 
meantime  breeding  grave  discontent  with  the  Govern- 
ment generally,  and  the  President  in  particular.  An 
agitation  against  the  war  was  started  by  an  old  pro- 
slavery  man,  Clement  L.  Vallandigham  of  Ohio. 
Vallandigham  was  arrested  and  sentenced  to  close  con- 
finement in  a  fortress.  This,  however,  only  had  the 
effect  of  leading  to  an  outcry  against  the  Government 
on  the  charge  of  mihtary  despotism,  which  had  the  sup- 
port of  Governor  Seymour  of  New  York.  Finally, 
the  President  decided  to  release  Vallandigham  and 
have  him  conducted  to  within  the  Confederate  hues, 
the  understanding  being  that  he  should  not  return 
during  the  war.  To  make  matters  worse,  the  Demo- 
cratic party  at  their  State  Convention  for  the  nomina- 
tion of  State  Governors  in  Ohio,  11th  June,  chose 
Vallandigham  as  candidate  for  Governor  by  an  almost 
unanimous  vote.  In  this  same  month  of  June  the 
Federal  territory  was  actually  being  invaded  by  the 
Southern  forces  under  General  Lee,  who  was  marching 
in  a  northwesterly  direction  up  the  Shenandoah  Valley. 
On  the  13th  of  the  month  his  Keutenant,  Ewell,  drove 
Milroy  from  Winchester.  On  the  following  day  the 
Confederate  forces  crossed  the  Potomac.  Hampered  by 


NEGRO  EMANCIPATION— TIDE  TURNS   141 

internal  discontent,  and  faced  at  the  same  time  by  mili- 
tary failure,  Lincoln  was  confronted  with  what  threat- 
ened to  prove  the  gravest  crisis  in  the  war.  The  tide, 
however,  was  already  on  the  point  of  tm'ning.  Hook- 
er's army,  now  under  the  command  of  General  Meade, 
who  first  comes  into  prominence  at  this  time,  and  whose 
army  had  been  given  the  shp  by  General  Lee,  advanced 
into  Pennsylvania  in  pursuit  of  the  Southern  army, 
which  had  already  invaded  this  Northern  State.  The 
two  armies  met  at  Gettysburg,  and  after  three  days' 
fighting,  1st  to  3rd  July,  the  Confederate  forces  were 
compelled  to  retreat,  leaving  some  14,000  prisoners  in 
Meade's  hands.  Only  one  day  later,  4th  July,  Vicks- 
burg,  which,  as  already  stated,  had  been  invested  by 
Grant,  surrendered  unconditionally.  The  prisoners 
here  taken  amounted  to  upwards  of  30,000  in  number, 
besides  220  guns.  In  the  following  week  Fort  Hudson 
on  the  Lower  Mississippi  surrendered  to  the  Federal 
armies,  with  7,000  prisoners  and  50  pieces  of  artillery. 

The  result  of  this  success  was  that  the  Northern  forces 
now  controlled  the  whole  course  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  the  Confederate  territory  was  cut  in  two.  These 
victories,  coming  after  such  a  long  series  of  failures 
and  reverses,  were  acclaimed  in  the  North  with  general 
rejoicings.  Independence  Day,  4th  July,  was  made  the 
oco^ion  of  wide-spread  enthusiasm,  the  news  of  the 
surrender  of  Vicksburg,  following  the  victory  of  Gettys- 
burg, arriving  on  the  afternoon  of  that  day.  The 
President  was  serenaded  by  the  dehghted  populace, 


142  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

when  he  took  the  opportunity  to  point  the  moral 
of  the  occasion  by  alluding  to  the  Southern  rebelHon  as 
"an  effort  to  overthrow  the  principle  that  all  men  were 
created  equal,"  which  was  the  avowed  basis  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  which  was  now 
threatened  by  the  champions  of  slavery  and  the  in- 
equality of  man.  To  General  Grant  Lincoln  wrote 
personally  "a  grateful  acknowledgment  for  the  almost 
inestimable  service  he  had  done  to  the  country."  The 
6th  August  was  set  apart  as  a  day  of  national  thanks- 
giving for  the  victories  achieved,  at  what  was  without 
doubt  the  real  turning-point  of  the  war. 

These  great  successes  of  the  Northern  forces  syn- 
chronized, curiously  enough,  with  very  serious  internal 
disturbances.  On  the  13th  July  the  carrying  out  of 
the  Conscription  Act  was  forcibly  resisted  in  New  York, 
and  Mob  Law  reigned  in  the  city  for  four  days.  Ne- 
groes were  beaten  to  death.  A  colored  orphan  asylum 
was  sacked  and  set  on  fire.  The  State  authorities,  who 
were  Democratic  in  sympathies,  stood  by  without  ta- 
king any  action.  Governor  Seymour  asked  for  the  post- 
ponement of  the  draft — a  concession  to  the  mob  which 
the  President  firmly  declined  to  grant.  On  19th  Au- 
gust it  was  carried  out  without  opposition.  These  riots, 
however,  had  exactly  the  reverse  effect  to  that  which 
their  organizers  anticipated.  A  wave  of  indignation 
swept  over  the  country  against  such  enemies  of  the 
Union.  In  the  following  elections  Vallandigham  was 
defeated  for  the  Governorship  of  Ohio  by  a  majority 


NEGRO  EMANCIPATION— TIDE  TURNS    143 

of  nearly  100,000.  New  York  was  won  by  the  Repub- 
licans, and  every  State  except  New  Jersey  indorsed  the 
Government  poHcy. 

The  end,  however,  of  the  Federal  reverses  was  not 
yet.  General  Rosecrans  had  successfully  driven  the 
Southern  forces  under  General  Bragg  through  south- 
eastern Tennessee  until  he  had  compelled  them  on  the 
9th  September  to  evacuate  Chattanooga;  while  at  the 
same  time  General  Burnside,  advancing  from  the  east, 
entered  its  capital,  Knoxville.  Bragg,  however,  was 
immediately  afterwards  reinforced  by  an  army  com- 
manded by  Longstreet,  General  Lee's  ablest  Ueutenant. 
The  combined  army  fell  on  Burnside,  who  apparently 
had  not  anticipated  this  move,  and  inflicted  on  him  a  de- 
feat at  Chickamauga.  The  Federal  armies  found  them- 
selves shut  up  in  Chattanooga  in  a  perilous  position 
with  only  scanty  suppUes.  General  Grant  was  here- 
upon placed  in  command  of  the  Federal  army  in 
Tennessee,  whither  Sherman  was  hurried  to  his  sup- 
port with  reinforcements  from  the  Mississippi.  The 
reverse  was  rapidly  retrieved.  Grant  with  his  rein- 
forced army  moved  out  to  attack  Bragg,  and  drove  the 
Confederates  from  their  positions.  At  the  same  time 
Grainger  and  Sherman  were  sent  to  relieve  Burnside 
at  Knoxville.  Longstreet,  the  Southern  general,  there- 
upon raised  the  siege  and  retreated  into  Virginia. 

Before  this  latest  reverse  had  been  retrieved,  19th 
November,  1863,  the  President  was  called  upon  to 
speak  at  the  dedication  of  a  national  burying-ground  on 


144  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  field  of  Gettysburg.  The  few  words  which  he 
addrest  to  his  audience  on  this  memorable  occasion 
have  long  been  remembered,  and  afford  a  typical  ex- 
ample of  Lincoln's  simple  and  yet  singularly  moving 
style  of  oratory.  Of  this  speech,  M.  Dusergier  de 
Hauranne,  in  an  appreciative  article  on  President  Lin- 
coln in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  written  shortly  after 
the  President's  assassination,  observed :  *'  I  do  not  think 
that  modern  eloquence  has  ever  produced  anything 
more  lofty  in  tone  than  the  discourse  pronounced  by 
Lincoln  over  the  tomb  of  the  soldiers  who  perished  at 
Gettysburg,"  and  later  critics  have  been  unanimous  in 
indorsing  this  judgment. 

"Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago"  (said  Lincoln)  "our 
fathers  brought  forth  on  this  continent  a  new  nation,  con- 
ceived in  Hberty,  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all 
men  are  created  equal. 

"Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war;  testing  whether 
that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived  and  so  dedicated, 
can  long  endure.  We  are  met  on  a  great  battle-field  of  that 
war.  We  have  come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field  as 
a  final  resting-place  for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that 
this  nation  might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper 
that  we  should  do  this. 

"But,  in  a  larger  sense,  we  cannot  dedicate — we  cannot 
consecrate — we  cannot  hallow — this  ground.  The  brave 
men,  hving  and  dead,  who  struggled  here,  have  consecrated 
it  far  above  our  poor  power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world 
will  httle  note,  nor  long  remember,  what  we  say  here^  but 
it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the 
living,  rather,  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfinished  work 


NEGRO  EMANCIPATION— TIDE  TURNS   143 

which  they  who  fought  here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  ad- 
vanced. It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great 
task  remaining  before  us — that  from  these  honored  dead 
we  take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which  they 
gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion — that  we  here  highly 
resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain — that 
this  nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom, 
and  that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the 
people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth."  ^ 

The  following  winter  was  not  favorable  to  the  North- 
ern arms.  They  were  defeated  in  an  expedition  into 
the  heart  of  Florida — one  of  the  principal  sources  of 
Confederate  supplies.  An  attempt  to  surprize  Rich- 
mond also  ended  in  a  reverse,  General  Kilpatrick  ac- 
tually advancing  as  far  as  the  second  line  of  fortifica- 
tions, two  and  a  half  miles  outside  the  city,  on  1st 
March,  1864.  He  was,  however,  then  compelled  to 
withdraw,  owing  to  the  defeat  and  capture  of  a  portion 
of  his  forces  under  Colonel  Dahlgren.  A  more  serious 
defeat  was  suffered  by  General  Banks  in  the  West. 
Banks  was  advancing  up  the  valley  of  the  Red  River, 
one  of  the  principal  westerly  affluents  of  the  Mississippi, 
when  he  was  encountered  by  General  Kirby  Smith,  in 
command  of  the  Southern  forces,  and  compelled  to  fall 
back  with  a  loss  of  16,000  men.    This  was  followed  by 

1  Lincoln's  speech,  as  to  text,  punctuation,  etc.,  is  given  here 
as  Lincoln  wrote  it  out  afterwards  for  a  soldiers'  and  sailors'  fair 
in  Baltimore.  It  differs  somewhat  from  versions  which  have  been 
printed  elsewhere.  One  of  these,  widely  current,  was  a  stenogra- 
pher's report,  as  taken  down  at  the  time  Lincoln  made  the 
speech  at  Grettysburg. 


146  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  capture  of  Fort  Pillow,  on  the  Mississippi,  by  the 
Confederate  forces,  and  a  disgraceful  massacre  of  the 
Northern   soldiery,   who   had   been   taken   prisoners 
mostly  negroes. 

General  Grant  was  now  in  chief  conmiand  of  all  the 
United  States  armies,  and  the  President  addrest  to 
him  on  30th  April  the  following  letter: — 

"Lieut.-Gen.  Grant, — Not  expecting  to  see  you  before 
the  Spring  campaign  opens,  I  wish  to  express  in  this  way  my 
entire  satisfaction  with  what  you  have  done  up  to  this  time, 
so  far  as  I  understand  it. 

^'The  particulars  of  your  plans  I  neither  know  nor  seek 
to  know.  You  are  vigilant  and  self-reliant;  and,  pleased 
with  this,  I  wish  not  to  obtrude  any  restraints  and  constraints 
upon  you.  While  I  am  verj'-  anxious  that  any  great  disaster 
or  capture  of  our  men  in  great  numbers  shall  be  avoided, 
I  know  that  these  points  are  less  hkely  to  escape  your  atten- 
tion than  they  would  be  mine.  If  there  be  anything  wanting 
which  is  within  my  power  to  give,  do  not  fail  to  let  me 
know  it. 

"And  now,  with  a  brave  army  and  a  just  cause,  may  God 
sustain  you!'* 

The  change  of  attitude  towards  his  new  Commander- 
in-Chief  is  not  a  little  noteworthy.  While  General 
M'CleUan  held  command  and  after,  the  responsibilities 
of  the  mihtary  situation  weighed  heavily  upon  the 
President,  who  felt  himself  obhged  to  give  constant 
advice  and  indeed  definite  instructions  to  his  Com- 
mander-in-Chief on  a  number  of  different  occasions, 
going  so  far  as  to  sketch  out  plans  of  campaign  and 
issuing  definite  orders  for  the  general's  guidance  wher- 


GENERAL   ULYSSES   S.    GRANT,    A   WAR-TIME    PORTRAIT 


NEGRO  EMANCIPATION— TIDE  TURNS   147 

ever  he  thought  this  necessary.  The  confidence  he 
felt  in  the  judgment  and  capacity  of  General  Grant,  on 
the  other  hand,  and  the  friendly  relations  between 
them,  led  to  an  entirely  different  Une  of  action.  Grant 
was,  in  fact,  allowed  a  perfectly  free  hand,  and  even 
when  his  views  did  not  coincide  with  those  of  Lincoln, 
the  President  preferred  to  leave  him  to  use  his  own 
discretion  and  to  await  the  result.  In  replying  to  his 
letter,  Grant  observed: — 

"The  confidence  you  express  for  the  future  and  satisfac- 
tion for  the  past  in  my  military  administration,  is  acknowl- 
edged with  pride.  It  will  be  my  earnest  endeavor  that  you 
and  the  country  shall  not  be  disappointed.  From  my  first 
entrance  into  the  Volunteer  service  of  the  country  to  the 
present  day  I  have  never  had  cause  of  complaint.  I  have 
never  exprest  or  implied  a  complaint  against  the  adminis- 
tration or  the 'Secretary  of  War  for  throwing  any  barrier  in 
the  way  of  my  prosecuting  what  appeared  to  be  my  duty. 
Indeed"  (he  added)  ''I  have  been  astonished  at  the  readiness 
with  which  everything  asked  for  has  been  yielded  without 
any  explanation  being  asked." 

No  greater  contrast  than  the  above  letter  could  be 
offered  to  the  endless  and  querulous  complaints  made 
by  General  M'Clellan  against  the  Army  Administration 
for  faihng  to  meet  his  frequently  unreasonable  and 
impossible  demands.  It  must,  however,  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  forces  now  at  the  disposal  of  the  North 
were  infinitely  greater  than  in  the  earlier  period  of  the 
campaign,  and  the  same  obstacles  accordingly  did  not 
offer  themselves  to  meeting  the  requirements  of  the 


148  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

general  in  command.  The  campaign  now  in  prepara- 
tion was  the  one  destined  to  bring  the  war  to  a  success- 
ful issue.  Grant's  plan  was  to  concentrate  the  vast 
bulk  of  the  United  States  forces  into  two  great  armies, 
the  object  of  which  would  be  to  strike  simultaneous 
blows  from  the  North  and  from  the  South.  One  of 
these  armies  accordingly  commenced  a  renewed  march 
upon  Richmond  from  the  North  under  the  command  of 
Grant  himself  and  General  Meade.  The  other,  under 
the  command  of  Sherman,  advanced  from  Chattanooga 
towards  the  Atlantic  coast  and  thence  northwards. 

Grant  proceeded  to  cross  the  Rapidan,  and  thereupon 
advanced  into  the  broken  wooded  country  termed  "The 
Wilderness, '*  where  it  was  impossible  for  artillery  to 
maneuver,  and  which  was  admirably  adapted  for  the 
defensive  and  harassing  tactics  of  the  enemy.  In  this 
disadvantageous  terrain  Grant  found  himself  face  to 
face  with  Lee's  army  in  full  force.  There  was  a  stubborn 
and  indecisive  engagement  on  5th  and  6th  May,  1864, 
involving  great  losses  to  the  Southern  army,  and  still 
heavier  to  Grant's.  Following  this,  Grant  made  a 
movement  to  the  left  with  a  view  to  outflanking  Lee. 
In  this,  however,  he  was  not  successful,  but  the  move- 
ment led  to  a  further  destructive  battle  on  8th  to  12th 
May,  in  which,  again,  both  sides  lost  heavily — Grant's 
army  losing  some  18,000  men  and  Lee's  probably  as 
many.  Lee,  however,  was  compelled  to  fall  back 
further  to  a  position  north  of  the  River  Anna. 

Grant  still  endeavored  to  turn  Lee's  right,  Lee  mean- 


/ 


NEGRO  EMANCIPATION—TIDE  TURNS   149 

while  maneuvering  his  army  with  a  view  to  the  protec- 
tion of  Richmond.  By  the  end  of  the  month  Grant 
had  arrived  at  Cold  Harbor,  ten  miles  northeast  of 
Richmond.  He  had  at  the  same  time  sent  an  expedi- 
tion under  General  Butler  by  sea  up  the  James  River, 
with  the  object  of  making  a  landing  south  of  Richmond, 
his  instructions  being  to  take  the  fortress  of  Petersburg, 
twenty-two  miles  south  of  the  Southern  capital.  The 
expedition,  however,  proved  a  failure.  The  Northern 
armies  under  Grant  himself  suffered  a  further  reverse 
on  1st  to  3rd  June,  in  a  '^rontal  attack  on  Lee's  entrench- 
ments, which  led  finally  to  his  abandonment  of  the 
attack.  Finding  a  direct  offensive  impracticable, 
Grant  thereupon  moved  his  army  across  the  James 
River  to  the  neighborhood  of  City  Point,  some  miles 
east  of  Petersburg. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  summer  General  Sigel, 
who  was  in  command  in  the  lower  part  of  the  Shenan- 
doah VaUey,  had  marched  southwards  on  Grant's  in- 
structions. General  Early  was  detached  by  Lee  to 
stop  his  progress.  An  engagement  ensued  in  which 
Sigel  was  defeated.  General  Hunter  was  sent  out  to 
supersede  Sigel,  and  met  with  no  better  success.  Early 
advanced  and  overwhelmed  a  smaller  force  under 
General  Wallace,  and  on  the  11th  July  actually  ap- 
peared before  Washington.  He  was  not,  however,  in 
a  position  to  make  a  serious  attack  on  the  capital,  and 
after  an  assault  upon  one  of  the  Washington  forts  with- 
drew back  across  the  Potomac.    Meanwhile,  in  pur- 


150  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

suance  of  the  other  portion  of  Grant's  plan  of  campaign, 
Sherman  proceeded  to  advance  in  an  easterly  direction 
from  Chattanooga,  where  he  found  himself  opposed  by 
General  Joseph 'Johnston,  whom  he  succeeded  in  push- 
ing back  along  the  line  of  railway  towards  Atlanta. 
Johnston  had  carefully  avoided  open  engagements. 
His  cautious  tactics  were,  however,  not  approved  by 
Jefferson  Davis,  who  sent  out  General  Hood  to  super- 
sede him.  The  new  general  promptly  gave  battle, 
and  suffered  a  severe  defeat  before  Atlanta,  which  town 
he  was  compelled  to  evacuate  on  2nd  September.  In 
the  meantime  Admiral  Farragut,  in  a  naval  engage- 
ment on  5th  August,  possest  himself  of  the  harbor 
of  Mobile  with  its  forts.  General  Grant  now  dispatched 
General  Sheridan  to  put  an  end  to  the  raids  up  the 
Shenandoah  Valley,  placing  him  in  command  of  Hun- 
ter's army.  The  consequent  military  operations  led 
to  the  defeat  of  Early  at  Cedar  Creek  on  19th  October, 
while  the  country  was  devastated  by  Grant's  orders, 
so  that  it  should  be  impossible  in  future  for  Richmond 
to  draw  further  supplies  from  this  source,  and  with  a 
view  to  preventing  further  raids  in  the  same  direction. 
Meanwhile  Sherman,  with  Grant's  reluctant  consent, 
had  estabHshed  the  headquarters  of  his  army  at 
Atlanta,  while  he  sent  General  Thomas  back  into 
Tennessee  where  the  Southern  General  Hood  was  con- 
templating a  diversion.  Thomas  took  up  a  defensive 
position  behind  the  fortifications  of  Nashville,  leaving 
General  Schofield  to  check  the  enemy's  advance,  while 


NEGRO  EMANCIPATION— TIDE  TURNS   151 

he  himself  waited  for  further  reinforcements.  An  en- 
gagement ensued  between  Schofield  and  Hood  at 
Franklin^  in  which  Hood's  army  suffered  heavy  losses; 
as  a  result  Schofield  was  able  to  fall  back  slowly  un- 
molested to  Nashville,  rejoining  Thomas's  army. 
Grant  felt  great  anxiety  with  regard  to  Thomas's  posi- 
tion and  his  failure  to  take  more  prompt  steps  to  stop 
the  advance  of  the  Southern  general.  He  had,  in  fact, 
already  sent  out  instructions  to  supersede  him;  but  in 
the  meantime  news  reached  him  that  in  a  battle  on 
15th  to  16th  December  Thomas  had  fallen  upon  Hood's 
army,  completely  routing  it,  capturing  on  the  occasion 
some  13,000  prisoners. 

Sherman's  forces  were  now  occupying  themselves 
in  systematically  devasting  the  agricultural  country  of 
Georgia,  which  had  served  as  a  granary  for  the  Con- 
federate forces.  This  work  of  destruction  being  ac- 
comphshed,  Sherman  proceeded  to  take  possession  of 
Savannah  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  made  preparations 
to  proceed  thence  on  his  Northern  march.  Grant  was 
all  this  time  extending  his  entrenchments  further  round 
the  south  side  of  Petersburg,  and  had  seized  two  out 
of  the  three  railway  lines  which  converged  on  that  city, 
thus  cutting  off  the  enemy's  suppHes.  The  Confeder- 
ate forces  were  now  almost  entirely  hemmed  in,  and 
desertion  was  playing  havoc  in  their  armies.  It  was 
clear  that  their  final  defeat  could  not  be  indefinitely 
postponed. 

In  the  meantime  Sherman  was  continuing  his  march 


152  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

northwards  from  his  headquarters  at  Savannah.  Lee 
endeavored  to  concentrate  all  available  forces  against 
him  at  Augusta.  While  appearing  to  threaten  this 
city  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  port  of  Charleston  on  the 
other,  Sherman,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  was  making 
preparations  for  an  advance  due  north  on  Columbia, 
the  capital  of  South  Carolina.  He  reached  this  town 
on  17th  February  by  forced  marches,  and  thus  put  an 
end  to  the  intended  concentration  of  the  Southern 
forces  at  Augusta.  Sherman's  march  had  the  effect  of 
cutting  the  communications  with  Charleston,  which 
was  hurriedly  abandoned,  and  occupied  by  the  Northern 
forces  on  18th  February. 

Wilmington  was  now  the  only  seaport  left  in  posses- 
sion of  the  Southern  Confederation,  and  Richmond,  cut 
off  from  its  main  arteries  of  communication,  was  to  a 
great  extent  dependent  on  the  supplies  which  reached 
it  through  this  quarter  in  spite  of  the  blockade.  An 
unsuccessful  attack  had  been  made  by  General  Butler 
on  Wilmington  at  the  end  of  December,  but  this  reverse 
was  soon  retrieved.  Admiral  Porter,  cooperating  with 
the  land  forces,  effected  the  capture  of  Fort  Fisher  at 
the  mouth  of  Wilmington  Harbor.  Following  this,  on 
the  22nd  February,  the  city  itself  was  stormed  by 
General  Schofield,  and  the  last  maritime  port  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  Union  forces.  It  was  now  Sher- 
man's aim  to  effect  a  junction  with  General  Schofield. 
Johnston,  whose  object  was  to  prevent  this,  had  not 
with  him  more  than  some  33,000  men;   and  Sherman 


NEGRO  EMANCIPATION— TIDE  TURNS   153 

had  probably  three  times  the  number.  There  were, 
however,  a  large  number  of  other  Confederate  troops 
in  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas,  and  Johnston  counted  on 
getting  a  fair  proportion  of  these  to  come  to  his  assist- 
ance. An  indecisive  battle  took  place  between  Sher- 
man's army  and  Johnston's  at  Bentonville,  Johnston 
withdrawing  within  an  entrenched  position  where 
Sherman  hesitated  to  attack  him.  Schofield,  however, 
now  arrived  on  the  scene,  and  Johnston  was  forced  to 
abandon  his  position.  On  23rd  March  Sherman  oc- 
cupied Goldsborough,  having  advanced  four  hundred 
and  twenty-five  miles  from  Savannah  during  a  period 
of  fifty  days,  in  spite  of  the  unfavorable  weather  con- 
ditions at  this  time  of  the  year.  He  had  now  the  port 
of  New  Berne  on  his  right  as  a  safe  base  of  supphes. 

In  another  field  of  the  war  Sheridan,  who  had  re- 
mained in  winter  quarters  until  27th  February,  started 
once  more  up  the  Shenandoah  Valley  with  10,000 
cavalry  in  pursuit  of  the  remains  of  Early's  forces. 
These  were  now  dispersed  and  captured,  and  having 
broken  up  the  railway  communication  to  the  north- 
west of  Richmond,  Sheridan  proceeded  to  join  Grant 
and  place  his  cavalry  at  his  service. 

While  the  war  was  thus  progressing,  the  President 
continued  to  occupy  his  mind  with  the  question  of 
Negro  Emancipation.  After  issuing  his  proclamation 
freeing  all  slaves  in  States  in  arms  against  the  central 
government,  he  proceeded  in  his  annual  message  to 
put  before  Congress  a  considered  policy  for  dealing 


154  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

with  the  whole  question.  What  he  proposed  was  a 
constitutional  amendment  to  be  submitted  to  the 
people  pro\dding  that  compensation  should  be  given 
by  the  Government  to  any  State,  whether  now  in 
rebelhon  or  not,  which  should  aboHsh  slavery  before 
the  year  1900;  and  that  all  slaves  who  had  acquired 
their  freedom  through  the  chances  of  war  should  be 
granted  such  freedom  in  perpetuity,  and  their  owners 
compensated.  Also  that  Congi-ess  should  vote  money 
for  a  scheme  for  the  colonization  of  negroes  outside  the 
borders  of  the  United  States.  These  moderate  pro- 
posals on  the  part  of  the  President  were  not  followed 
up  by  Congress.  The  Democrats  in  especial  were  op- 
posed to  them.  But  the  situation  created  by  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  was  bound  to  lead  to  a 
position  which  would  have  to  be  dealt  with,  and  dealt 
with  on  bold  Hues.  It  was  clear  that  matters  could 
not  remain  as  they  had  been  in  the  past.  Lincoln  him- 
self long  viewed  with  favor  the  scheme  for  negro  colo- 
nization, realizing  the  difficulties  which  would  eventuate 
for  the  United  States  Government  in  having  to  deal 
with  so  large  and  rapidly  increasing  an  emancipated 
negro  population.  Bills  were  introduced  into  Congress 
to  compensate  the  States  of  Missouri  and  Maryland 
if  they  abohshed  slavery,  the  popular  f3ehng  in  these 
States  being  strongly  in  favor  of  aboHtion.  The  ma- 
jority in  both  Houses  supported  these  bills,  but  they 
were  eventually  killed  by  persistent  obstruction. 
As  time  went  on,  the  Abohtionist  Movement  gained 


NEGRO  EMANCIPATION— TIDE  TURNS    155 

steadily  in  strength.  In  the  autumn  of  1864  Maryland 
passed  an  amendment  to  the  State  Constitution  abolish- 
ing slavery,  and  allowing  no  compensation  to  the  slave- 
owners. Missouri  followed  later  with  a  similar  meas- 
ure, while  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  started  a  move- 
ment in  the  same  direction.  It  was  clear  now  which 
way  the  current  was  running,  and  the  Republican 
Convention  of  1864,  in  choosing  Lincoln  as  its  candidate 
for  reelection  to  the  Presidency  declared  in  favor  of  a 
constitutional  amendment  to  abohsh  slavery  through- 
out the  States.  There  was  little  doubt  that  the  next 
Congress  would  do  this,  but  Lincoln  was  anxious  that 
the  matter  should  be  taken  in  hand  at  once.  In  his 
message  to  Congress  in  1864  he  urged  the  advisability 
of  prompt  action.  An  amendment  to  the  Constitution 
necessitated  a  two-thirds  majority.  The  resolution 
was  passed  in  the  Senate,  but  its  fate  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  seemed  extremely  uncertain  till  the 
very  last  moment.  It  hung,  in  short,  upon  a  very  few 
doubtful  votes.  Lincoln  picked  out  two  Democratic 
Congressmen,  who  presumably  had  compromised  them- 
selves in  some  way  and  stood  in  wholesome  awe  of  the 
Presidential  authority.  He  told  them  in  so  many 
words  that  the  gaining  of  a  fevv^  votes  would  secure 
the  passing  of  the  resolution,  and  that  these  votes 
must  be  gained.  He  added  that  he  looked  to  them 
personally  to  see  that  they  were  secured.  His  threat 
had  the  desired  effect,  and  on  31st  January,  1865,  the 
resolution  was  passed  in  the  House  of  Representatives 


156  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

by  the  requisite  two-thirds  majority,  the  crowd  in  the 
galleries  breaking  out  at  the  announcement  of  the 
result  into  a  demonstration  of  enthusiasm  which  was 
long  afterwards  remembered.  The  action  of  Congress 
required  to  be  subsequently  indorsed  by  twenty-seven 
out  of  the  thirty-six  individual  States,  and  it  was  not 
till  December  of  the  same  year  that  this  final  step  was 
completed.  The  necessary  majority  had  then  been 
obtained,  and  slavery  in  the  United  States  of  America 
was  a  thing  of  the  past.  Lincoln  was  no  longer  alive 
to  see  this  much-desired  consummation,  but  it  had  been 
practically  assured  some  months  before  his  death. 

Three  years  later  a  constitutional  amendment  was 
passed  forbidding  any  distinction  in  the  franchise  on 
the  ground  of  race  or  color.  This  amendment  evidently 
went  further  than  Lincoln's  own  views  on  the  matter, 
his  cautious  policy  aiming  rather  at  confining  the 
franchise  to  the  better  educated  and  more  influential 
portion  of  the  black  population.  It  was,  however, 
feared  that  vagrancy  laws  and  other  such  methods 
might  be  put  into  operation  as  an  indirect  means  of  re- 
enslaving  the  negroes  in  the  South,  and  the  defenders 
of  the  amendment  argued  that  universal  franchise 
would  be  the  best  means  to  be  adopted  for  their 
protection. 


Chapter  XII 

LINCOLN  REELECTED  PRESIDENT 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  the  Republican  party  had 
adopted  Lincohi  as  their  candidate  for  the  Presidency, 
but  he  was  not  destined  to  be  elected  unopposed. 
His  four  years'  term  of  office  was  due  to  expire  in 
March,  1865,  and  the  election  would  take  place  in 
the  preceding  November.  The  reverses  to  the  Federal 
arms  in  the  early  months  of  1864  had  led  to  great  dis- 
content and  dissatisfaction  in  the  North,  and  it  was 
feared  for  some  time  that  Lincoln's  chances  of  re- 
election were  by  no  means  encouraging.  The  Demo- 
crats, taking  advantage  of  popular  discontent,  decided 
to  put  forward  General  M'Clellan;  while  the  ex- 
treme section  of  Abolitionists  nominated  General 
Fremont,  who,  however,  withdrew  his  candidature  be- 
fore the  election.  Lincoln  formally  accepted  the  nomi- 
nation on  27th  June,  1864.  Replying  to  a  congratu- 
latory address  from  the  "National  Union  League,"  he 
used  an  expression  in  thanking  the  League  which  has 
since  become  a  household  word.  "  I  have  not,"  he  said, 
"permitted  myself,  gentlemen,  to  conclude  that  I  am 

the  best  man  in  the  country,  but  I  am  reminded  in  this 

157 


158  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

connection  of  a  story  of  an  old  Dutch  farmer  who 
remarked  to  a  companion  once  that  it  was  best  not  to 
swap  horses  when  crossing  a  stream." 

His  renomination  recalled  to  the  President  a  curious 
experience  which  he  had  had  at  the  time  of  his  first 
nomination  at  the  Chicago  Convention  of  1860,  which 
serves  to  illustrate  the  strong  vein  of  superstition  in  his 
character.  He  related  the  experience  at  the  time  of 
its  occurrence  to  Mr.  Carpenter,  and  also  to  John  Hay, 
his  assistant  private  secretary.  ''In  the  afternoon  of 
the  day,  returning  home  from  down-town,"  he  said, 
"I  went  up-stairs  to  Mrs.  Lincoln's  sitting-room.  Feel- 
ing somewhat  tired,  I  lay  down  upon  a  couch  in  the 
room,  directly  opposite  a  bureau,  upon  which  was  a 
looking-glass.  As  I  reclined,  my  eye  fell  upon  the 
glass,  and  I  saw  distinctly  two  images  of  myself, 
exactly  alike,  except  that  one  was  a  Httle  paler  than 
the  other.  I  arose  and  lay  down  again,  with  the  same 
result.  It  made  me  quite  uncomfortable  for  a  few 
moments;  but  some  friends  coming  in,  the  matter 
passed  out  of  my  mind.  The  next  day,  while  walking 
in  the  street,  I  was  suddenly  reminded  of  the  circum- 
stances and  a  disagreeable  sensation  was  produced  by 
its  return.  I  had  never  seen  anything  of  the  kind 
before,  and  did  not  know  what  to  make  of  it.  I  de- 
termined to  go  home  and  place  myself  in  the  same 
position;  and,  if  the  same  effect  was  produced.  I  would 
make  up  my  mind  that  it  was  the  natural  result  of  some 
principle  of  refraction  or  optics  which  I  did  not  under' 


LINCOLN  REELECTED  PRESIDENT    159 

stand,  and  dismiss  it.  I  tried  the  experiment,  with  the 
same  result;  and,  accounting  for  it  on  some  principle 
unknown  to  me,  it  ceased  to  trouble  me."  It  is  per- 
haps worth  noting  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  took  this  at  the 
time  as  a  psychic  intimation  of  her  husband's  second 
election  to  the  Presidency. 

Following  Lincoln's  nomination,  an  attempt  was 
made  by  the  South  at  a  settlement  by  negotiation,  and 
three  Confederate  commissioners  applied  for  a  safe- 
conduct  to  Washington  to  treat  for  peace.  With  par- 
ties in  the  North  so  disunited,  there  was  no  little 
danger  of  intrigues  being  set  on  foot  by  these  com- 
missioners. At  the  same  time  there  was  obvious  risk 
involved  if  the  President  consented  to  treat  with  them. 
If  he  did  so  without  any  stipulation  as  to  the  restoration 
of  the  Union,  he  forfeited  his  title  to  support  as  a 
Union  candidate.  If,  again,  he  did  so  without  any 
stipulation  as  to  the  aboUtion  of  slavery,  he  would 
forfeit  the  entire  support  of  the  AboHtionists.  Lincoln, 
moreover,  was  unwilling  to  recognize  officially  the  gov- 
ernment of  Jefferson  Davis,  as  this  would  give  an  armed 
rebellion  a  status  which  he  had  invariably  refused  to 
accord  it.  It  was  doubtful,  again,  how  far  the  com- 
missioners' terms  would  be  considered  binding  by  the 
armed  forces  of  the  South,  and  unless  they  were  in  a  po- 
sition to  secure  the  disbanding  of  the  Southern  army 
on  the  acceptance  of  their  terms,  negotiations  with 
them  would  obviously  be  futile.  Lincoln  under  these 
circumstances  issued  a  statement  which  was  entkely 


160  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

successful  in  baffling  the  intrigue  without  compromising 
his  own  position.     It  ran  as  follows: — 

"To  whom  it  may  concern: — Any  proposition  which  em- 
braces the  restoration  of  peace,  the  integrity  of  the  whole 
Union,  and  the  abandonment  of  slavery,  and  which  comes 
by  and  with  an  authority  that  can  control  the  armies  now 
at  war  against  the  United  States,  will  be  received  and  con- 
sidered by  the  Executive  Government  of  the  United  States, 
and  will  be  met  by  liberal  terms  on  substantial  and  collateral 
points,  and  the  bearer  or  bearers  thereof  shall  have  safe- 
conduct  both  ways.' 


)> 


It  was  about  this  time,  as  already  narrated,  that 
the  Confederate  army  was  raiding  in  Maryland  and 
Pennsylvania,  and  that  Grant  met  with  the  serious 
repulse  in  his  assault  of  Petersburg  on  30th  July.  In 
view  of  the  gravity  of  the  situation  Lincoln  had  called 
for  a  further  levy  of  five  hundred  thousand  men.  His 
friends  endeavored  to  dissuade  him  from  doing  so, 
for  fear  of  endangering  his  electioneering  prospects. 
"As  to  my  reelection,"  he  replied,  *'it  matters  not. 
We  must  have  the  men.  If  I  go  down  I  intend  to  do 
so,  like  the  Cumberland}  with  my  colors  flying."  The 
President  was  looking  ill  and  was  suffering  from  worry 
and  overwork.  His  friends  were  anxious  about  his 
condition  and  urged  him  to  take  things  more  easily. 
"I  cannot  work  less,"  he  replied.  "But  it  is  not  that. 
Work  never  troubled  me.     Personally  I  care  nothing 


1  The  Cumberland  was  a  wooden  frigate  sunk  by  the  Confeder- 
ate ironclad  Merrimac  in  Hampton  Roads. 


LINCOLN  REELECTED  PRESIDENT    161 

about  a  reelection;  but  if  our  divisions  defeat  us,  I 
fear  for  the  country."  He  said  again  that  he  had 
faith  in  the  ultima-te  triumph  of  the  North,  but  added, 
"I  may  never  Kve  to  see  it.  I  feel  a  presentiment  that 
I  shall  not  outlast  the  rebellion.  When  it  is  over  my 
work  will  be  done/' 

Before  the  Presidential  election  took  place,  the  tide 
had  turned  once  more  and  finally  in  favor  of  the  North. 
Lincoln  had  now  no  longer  any  real  anxiety  as  regards 
his  reelection.  He  was,  in  fact,  returned  by  the  votes 
of  all  the  loyal  States  except  three,  and  by  a  larger 
popular  majority  than  had  ever  yet  been  given  in  a  con- 
tested Presidential  election.  He  received  a  triumphant 
ovation  on  the  occasion,  and  replied  to  his  enthusiastic 
supporters  in  the  following  memorable  words: — 

"It  has  long  been  a  grave  question  whether  any  Govern- 
ment, not  too  strong  for  the  hberties  of  the  people,  can  be 
strong  enough  to  maintain  its  own  existence  in  great  emer- 
gencies. On  this  point  the  present  rebellion  has  brought  our 
Republic  to  a  severe  test;  and  the  Presidential  elections 
occurring  in  regular  course  during  the  rebellion  added  not  a 
little  to  the  strain.  If  the  loyal  people  united  were  put  to 
the  utmost  of  their  strength  by  the  rebellion,  must  they  not 
fall  when  divided  and  partially  paralyzed  by  a  pohtical  war 
among  themselves?  But  the  election  was  a  necessity.  We 
cannot  have  a  free  government  without  elections;  and  if  a 
rebeUion  could  force  us  to  forego  or  postpone  a  national 
election,  it  might  fairly  claim  to  have  already  conquered  us. 
.  .  .  But  the  rebellion  continues;  and  now  that  the  election 
is  over,  may  not  all  having  a  common  interest  reunite  in  a 
common  effort  to  save  our  common  country?    For  my  own 


162  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

part,  I  have  striven  and  shall  strive  to  avoid  placing  any 
obstructions  in  the  way.  So  long  as  I  have  been  here  I 
have  not  willingly  planted  a  thorn  for  any  man's  bosom. 
While  I  am  duly  sensible  to  the  high  compUment  of  a  re- 
election, and  duly  grateful  to  Almighty  God  for  having 
directed  our  countrymen  to  right  conclusions,  as  I  think, 
for  their  good,  it  adds  nothing  to  my  satisfaction  that  any 
other  man  may  be  disappointed  by  the  result.  May  I  ask 
those  who  have  differed  with  me  to  join  with  me  in  this  same 
spirit  to  those  who  have  not?  And  now  let  me  close  by 
asking  three  hearty  cheers  for  our  brave  soldiers  and  seamen, 
and  their  gallant  and  skiKul  commanders." 

The  raising  of  the  respective  armies  of  the  North  and 
South  had  proved  a  very  serious  matter  to  a  country 
not  accustomed  to  military  service.  The  resources  of 
the  South  were  necessarily  much  smaller  than  those  of 
the  North,  and  compulsion  had  accordingly  to  be  re- 
sorted to  at  a  much  earlier  date.  The  Southern  Gov- 
ernment granted  the  necessary  powers  in  April,  1862, 
about  one  year  after  the  commencement  of  hostilities. 
The  Conscription  Act  in  the  North  did  not  become 
law  till  March,  1863,  and  even  so  the  percentage  of  men 
enrolled  under  this  Act  was  remarkably  small,  tho 
it  proved  a  very  eflScient  incentive  to  voluntary  enlist- 
ment. There  were  in  arms  at  the  end  of  the  war  in  the 
Northern  army  980,000  white  soldiers,  and  something 
like  300,000  black.  Before  conscription  was  put  into 
force  the  Northern  army  had  already  reached  the  total 
of  860,000,  but  it  was  found  impossible  to  make  good 
the  constant  wastage  of  war.    At  one  period  in  the  war, 


LINCOLN  REELECTED  PRESIDENT    163 

curiously  enough  at  the  very  time  that  the  South  was 
adopting  conscription,  recruiting  was  suddenly  stopped 
in  the  North,  the  reason  apparently  being  the  conges- 
tion of  the  War  Department  and  the  fact  that  recruits 
presented  themselves  faster  than  they  could  be  or- 
ganized and  equipped.  During  the  latter  part  of  the 
war  the  numbers  in  arms  in  the  North  were  immensely 
greater  than  those  in  the  South,  and  the  Southern 
armies  in  consequence  constantly  found  themselves 
confronted  with  very  greatly  superior  forces. 

In  the  original  measure  of  compulsion  in  the  South 
the  Uabihty  to  serve  was  limited  to  the  ages  of  eighteen 
to  thirty-five.  This  was  extended  in  September,  1862, 
to  eighteen  to  forty-five,  and  finally  in  February,  1864, 
to  all  between  seventeen  and  fifty.  The  Northern  Con- 
scription Act  placed  the  recruiting  organization  under 
the  control  of  General  James  B.  Fry,  as  Provost- 
Marshal-General.  The  country  was  divided  into  a 
number  of  districts  and  sub-districts,  and  authority 
was  given  to  enroll  all  male  citizens  between  twenty 
and  forty-five.  Each  district,  however,  was  merely 
required  to  provide  its  special  quota,  and  if  it  could 
do  this  without  the  aid  of  compulsion,  the  Conscription 
Act  was  not  put  into  force.  Conscripts  were  chosen 
by  lot  from  those  liable  to  serve,  but  those  chosen  were 
at  liberty  to  find  substitutes  if  they  could  do  so,  the 
price  of  a  substitute,  generally  speaking,  amounting  to 
about  a  thousand  dollars.  Provision  was  made  to 
safeguard  such  as  could  not  pay  this  price,  the  arrange- 


1G4  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

ment  being  that  a  substitute  should  be  found  for  them 
for  three  hundred  dollars.  It  stands  to  reason,  how- 
ever, that  there  must  have  been  many  conscripts  who 
would  not  be  in  a  position  to  find  this  sum.  This 
method  of  conscription  has  of  course  been  very  widely 
adopted  in  the  past,  but  was  rejected  in  the  great  war 
of  to-day  on  account  of  its  very  obvious  unfairness  to 
the  poorer  citizens.  It  was,  however,  the  traditional 
method,  and  evidently  Lincoln  did  not  see  his  way  to 
substitute  anything  of  a  more  efficient  and  at  the  same 
time  juster  character.  The  number  of  men  actually 
conscripted  in  the  North  was  comparatively  small,  and 
the  main  use  of  conscription  was  in  reaHty  as  a  threat 
to  stimulate  voluntary  enlistment. 

The  reelection  of  Lincoln  as  President  and  their 
reverses  in  the  field  brought  home  to  the  South  the 
fact  that  it  was  high  time  to  make  peace.  Jefferson 
Davis,  however,  was  not  prepared  to  accept  the  only 
possible  terms.  At  the  same  time  he  was  anxious  to 
try  if  it  would  not  be  possible  to  secure  peace  on  some 
more  favorable  conditions.  With  this  view  he  dis- 
patched Vice-President  Stephens,  who  had  always  been 
at  heart  opposed  to  the  war,  and  two  other  Southern 
leaders,  who  were  instructed  to  go  to  Grant's  head- 
quarters and  make  an  appeal  through  the  commander 
in  the  field,  which  would  induce  Lincoln  to  consent  to 
see  them  and  open  negotiations.  Lincoln  was  unwill- 
ing, but  finally,  at  Grant's  express  desire,  consented  to 
see  the  commissioners,  and  make  clear  to  them  the 


LINCOLN  REELECTED  PRESIDENT    165 

only  terms  on  which  the  South  could  have  peace.  He 
accordingly  went,  taking  Seward  with  him,  and  met 
the  three  conrnaissioners  on  a  ship  at  Hampton  Roads 
on  3rd  February.  They  were  clearly  told  that  the 
Union  rtiust  be  accepted  in  the  most  unqualified  man- 
ner, and  also  advised  of  the  constitutional  amendment 
which  Congress  had  submitted  to  the  people  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  and  which  it  must  be  understood 
would  not  be  opposed.  The  attempt  of  the  com- 
missioners to  whittle  down  these  terms  met  with  no 
sort  of  success;  and  as  it  was  clear  that  Jefferson 
Davis  was  not  prepared  to  accept  them,  the  Con- 
ference, as  Lincoln  anticipated,  led  to  no  results.  The 
conomissioners  were,  however,  informed  that  while 
Lincoln  could  make  no  promise  as  regards  amnesty  for 
rebels,  the  executive  power  which  lay  in  his  hands 
would  be  used  in  the  interests  of  clemency.  "I  un- 
derstand, then,"  Stephens  said,  "that  you  regard  us 
as  rebels  who  are  Hable  to  be  hung  for  treason."  Lin- 
coln repHed  that  that  was  the  case.  "Well,"  said 
Stephens,  "to  tell  you*  the  truth,  we  are  none  of  us 
much  afraid  of  being  hanged  with  you  as  President." 
Lincoln  now  took  office  for  the  second  time  as 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  delivered  his  second 
inaugural  address.  Never  has  any  great  public  pro- 
nouncement on  a  momentous  occasion  of  history 
breathed  so  deep  a  religious  feeling.  Lincoln  was  in- 
deed one  of  the  only  great  pubhc  men  in  history  who 
could  make  use  of  Biblical  phraseology  in  pubHc  life 


166  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

without  the  slightest  suspicion  of  insincerity.  Every- 
thing he  said  in  public  or  private  was  so  stamped  with 
his  own  natural  earnestness  and  the  intensity  of  his 
convictions,  that  words  which  would  have  rung  false 
from  the  lips  of  any  other  statesman  only  served,  when 
used  by  him,  to  add  a  note  of  greater  solemnity  and 
sense  of  responsibility  to  the  address. 

"Fellow-countrymen.!"  (he  said) — "At  this  second  appear- 
ance to  take  the  oath  of  the  Presidential  office,  there  is  less 
occasion  for  an  extended  address  than  there  was  at  the  first. 
Then  a  statement,  somewhat  in  detail,  of  a  course  to  be  pur- 
sued seemed  fitting  and  proper.  Now,  at  the  expiration  of 
four  years,  during  which  public  declarations  have  been  con- 
stantly called  forth  on  every  point  and  phase  of  the  great 
contest  which  still  absorbs  the  energies  and  engrosses  the 
attention  of  the  nation,  little  that  is  new  could  be  presented. 
The  progress  of  our  arms,  upon  which  all  else  chiefly  depends, 
is  as  well  known  to  the  public  as  to  myself;  and  it  is,  I  trust, 
reasonably  satisfactory  and  encouraging  to  all.  With  high 
hope  for  the  future,  no  prediction  in  regard  to  it  is  ventured. 

"On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years  ago,  all 
thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  impending  civil  war. 
All  dreaded  it — all  sought  to  avert  it.  While  the  inaugural 
address  was  being  dehvered  from  this  place,  devoted  alto- 
gether to  saving  the  Union  without  war,  insurgent  agents 
were  in  the  city  seeking  to  destroy  it  without  war — seeking 
to  dissolve  the  Union  and  divide  effects,  by  negotiation. 
Both  parties  deprecated  war;  but  one  of  them  would  make 
war  rather  than  let  the  nation  survive;  and  the  other  would 
accept  war  rather  than  let  it  perish.    And  the  war  came. 

"One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored  slaves 
not  distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but  localized  in 


LINCOLN   REELECTED  PRESIDENT    167 

the  Southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves  constituted  a  peculiar 
and  powerful  interest.  All  knew  that  this  interest  was, 
somehow,  the  cause  of  the  war.  To  strengthen,  perpetuate, 
and  extend  this  interest  was  the  object  for  which  the  in- 
surgents would  rend  the  Union,  even  by  war;  while  the 
Government  claimed  no  right  to  do  more  than  to  restrict  the 
territorial  enlargement  of  it.  Neither  party  expected  for  the 
war  the  magnitude  or  the  duration  which  it  has  already 
attained.  Neither  expected  that  the  cause  of  the  conflict 
might  cease  with,  or  even  before,  the  conflict  itself  should 
cease.  Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and  a  result 
less  fundamental  and  astounding.  Both  read  the  same 
Bible,  and  pray  to  the  same  God;  and  each  invokes  His 
aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem  strange  that  any  men 
should  dare  to  ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in  wringing  their 
bread  from  the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces;  but  let  us  judge 
not,  that  we  be  not  judged.  The  prayer  of  both  could  not 
be  answered — that  of  neither  has  been  answered  fully.  The 
Almighty  has  His  own  purposes.  'Wo  unto  the  world  be- 
cause of  offenses;  for  it  must  needs  be  that  offense  cometh.' 
If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery  is  one  of  these 
offenses  which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  must  needs  come, 
but  which,  having  continued  through  His  appointed  time, 
He  now  wills  to  remove,  and  that  He  gives  to  both  North 
and  South  this  terrible  war,  as  the  wo  due  to  those  by  whom 
offense  came,  shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure  from 
those  divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living  God 
always  ascribe  to  Him?  Fondly  do  we  hope — fervently 
do  we  pray — that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily 
pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the 
wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of 
blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  with  another  drawn 
with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so 


168  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

still  it  must  be  said,  'The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true 
and  righteous  altogether/ 

"With  mahce  towards  none;  with  charity  for  all;  with 
firnmess  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let 
us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in;  to  bind  up  the 
nation's  wounds,  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the 
battle,  and  for  his  widow,  and  his  orphan — to  do  all  which 
may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among 
ourselves,  and  with  all  nations." 


\ 


\ 


Chapter  XIII 

THE  END 

Lincoln  now  left  Washington  at  Grant's  desire,  and 
proceeded  to  headquarters.  Sheridan  was  aheady  with 
Grant,  and  Sherman  joined  them  shortly  afterwards. 
Meanwhile  Lee  made  overtures  with  a  view  to  a  con- 
ference which  Lincoln  instructed  Grant  to  refuse  except 
on  the  terms  of  unconditional  surrender. 

Lee's  defenses  w^ere  now  extended  some  forty  miles 
around  Richmond  and  Petersburg.  On  April  1st 
Sheridan,  passing  to  the  south  of  these  lines,  in  a  battle 
at  Five  Forks,  established  himself  in  possession  of  the 
railway  running  west  from  Petersburg.  Grant's  army 
proceeded  to  dehver  assaults  at  various  points  to  the 
east  of  the  Petersburg  defenses.  On  2nd  April  the 
Confederate  Government  left  the  capital,  and  Lee 
evacuated  Richmond,  which  had  become  no  longer 
tenable,  on  the  next  day.  Jefferson  Davis  took  refuge 
with  Johnston's  army.  Johnston  told  him  frankly  that 
further  resistance  was  impossible,  and  obtained  his 
permission  to  treat  with  Sherman,  the  President  him- 
self escaping  South.     Lee  now  aimed  at  joining  hands 

with  Johnston,  but  the  Northern  cavalry  headed  him 

169 


170  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

off  and  destroyed  the  railway  lines  on  his  route,  cutting 
off  his  supplies.  A  running  fight  followed,  culminating 
in  a  battle  on  6th  April  at  Sailor's  Creek.  Driven  back 
thence,  the  Southern  general  found  himself  surrounded 
beyond  any  possibihty  of  escape  at  Appomattox  Court 
House. 

A  meeting  was  arranged  between  himself  and  Grant 
and  their  respective  staffs  in  a  neighboring  farmhouse. 
Lee  inquired  on  what  terms  Grant  would  accept  sur- 
render. Grant  gave  permission  for  every  Southern 
officer  to  keep  his  sword  and  his  horse,  and  subsequently 
accorded  permission,  on  Lee's  sohcitation,  for  the  cav- 
alry troopers  also  to  retain  their  horses.  A  general  in- 
demnity against  the  charge  of  treason  was  also  granted 
to  the  Confederate  officers.  Lincoln  returned  to  Wash- 
ington and  met  with  an  ovation  at  the  White  House  on 
11th  April,  where  he  addrest  the  crowd  on  the  prob- 
lem of  reconstruction  in  the  South.  On  the  Good 
Friday  following,  14th  April,  the  Union  flag  was  once 
more  hoisted  at  Fort  Sumter  by  its  old  defender.  General 
Anderson,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  day  on  which  it 
had  been  hauled  down  four  years  before;  and  on  the 
same  morning  a  Cabinet  Council  took  place  at  Wash- 
ington and  discust  the  problem  of  reconstruction. 

Lincoln,  on  the  same  day,  also  saw  General  Grant, 
who  exprest  some  anxiety  concerning  the  situation  of 
General  Sherman,  from  whom  he  had  heard  nothing  for 
some  days.  Lincoln  told  Grant  that  he  was  convinced 
that  some  good  news  was  coming  from  Sherman,  and 


THE  END  171 

proceeded  to  narrate  a  dream  which  he  had  had  on 
the  previous  night,  and  which  he  declared  had  always 
come  to  him  on  the  eve  of  momentous  news.  In  this 
dream  he  found  himself  on  board  a  curiously  built 
vessel  which  was  drifting  rapidly  towards  a  dark  and 
undefined  shore.  He  said  that  he  had  had  this  dream 
before  several  of  the  Northern  victories.  He  had 
dreamt  it  before  Antietam,  before  Murfreesborough, 
and  also  before  Vicksburg.  General  Grant  commented 
that  the  battle  of  Antietam  had  not  resulted  in  a 
victory;  but  the  President  took  no  notice  of  this  com- 
ment and  continued  to  describe  his  dream  in  more 
detail,  and  the  sensations  which  accompanied  it,  in- 
sisting that  he  was  sure  that  it  referred  to  Sherman's 
victory,  as  he  could  think  of  no  other  important  event 
to  which  it  might  relate.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  on 
the  same  morning  Sherman  had  received  and  repHed 
to  a  letter  from  Johnston  opening  negotiations  for 
a  peaceful  surrender,  which  was  completed  twelve 
days  later. 

On  the  fateful  day  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  drove  out 
together,  and  the  President  seemed  in  a  particularly 
cheerful  mood.  Mrs.  Lincoln  had  arranged  for  a  party 
at  the  Ford  Theater  that  night  and  insisted  on  the 
President  being  one  of  the  party,  tho  he  himself 
was  reluctant,  as  he  had  already  seen  the  play.  Our 
American  Cousin,  before,  and  did  not  care  to  go  to  it 
again.  He,  however,  gave  way  to  his  wife's  impor- 
tunity, humorously  remarking,  when  he  found  that 


172  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

further  protest  was  useless,  "All  right,  Mary,  FU  go; 
but  if  I  don't  go  down  to  history  as  the  martyr  Presi- 
dent, I  miss  my  guess."  The  Grants  were  to  have  been 
of  the  party,  but  General  Grant  changed  his  mind  at 
the  last  moment,  and  left  Washington  the  same  day. 
They  were,  however,  accompanied  by  Major  Rathbone, 
a  young  officer,  and  his  fiancee.  The  theater  was 
crowded,  and  the  President  was  enthusiastically 
cheered. 

At  about  a  quarter  past  ten  John  Wilkes  Booth,  an 
actor,  passed  along  the  passage  behind  the  spectators, 
showing  a  card  to  the  attendant,  and  entered  the 
vestibule  of  the  President's  box.  Closing  the  door 
behind  him  and  entering  by  the  door  of  the  box  itself, 
which  was  left  open,  as  the  President  was  leaning  for- 
ward he  shot  him  with  a  small  pistol  through  the  back 
of  the  head.  Lincoln  fell  forward  immediately,  and 
made  no  further  movement.  Major  Rathbone  jumped 
up  and  seized  Booth,  who  turned  to  atta6k  him  with  a 
dagger  which  he  carried  in  his  left  hand,  and  escaped 
from  his  grasp.  He  then  rushed  to  the  front,  shouting 
the  words  of  the  Virginian  motto,  ''Sic  semper  tyrannis,^^ 
and  leapt  upon  the  stage.  The  spur,  however, 
which  he  was  wearing  caught  in  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
banner  which  was  displayed  for  the  occasion,  and  he 
fell,  breaking  his  leg.  In  spite  of  this,  he  jumped  up 
again  and  succeeded  in  making  his  escape  to  the  rear 
door  of  the  theater,  where  he  mounted  a  horse  which 
was  waiting  for  him.    Eventually  he  was  pursued  and 


THE  END  173 

finally  tracked  down  to  a  barn  in  Virginia,  which  was 
set  on  fire  by  the  soldiers  in  pursuit  of  him,  and  shot 
dead  as  he  emerged  from  the  flames. 

On  the  same  night  another  of  the  conspirators  gained 
entrance  to  Seward's  house,  wounding  three  people,  in- 
cluding Seward  himself,  who  was  lying  in  bed  from 
the  effects  of  an  accident.  All,  however,  subsequently 
recovered.  The  President  himself  never  regained  con- 
sciousness, and  at  7.20  on  the  following  morning  passed 
peacefully  away.  Two  of  Lincoln's  sons  survived  him 
— one  of  the  two  destined  later  to  become  ambassador 
to  Great  Britain.  The  third,  Wilhe,  who  was  described 
as  "the  chartered  libertine  of  the  White  House,"  died 
during  the  war,  to  the  intense  grief  of  his  parents,  who 
were  devoted  to  him.  This  blow,  the  President  him- 
self confessed,  overwhelmed  him.  Lincoln  on  one  oc- 
casion, after  reading  to  his  aide-de-camp.  Colonel 
Cannon,  the  lines  from  Shakespeare's  King  John, 

'Father  Cardinal,  I  have  heard  you  say 
That  we  shall  see  and  know  our  friends  in  heaven. 
If  that  be  true,  I  shall  see  my  boy  again," 

turned  to  Cannon,  saying:  "Colonel!  Did  you  ever 
dream  of  a  lost  friend,  and  feel  that  you  were  holding 
conversation  with  that  friend,  and  yet  have  a  sad  con- 
sciousness that  it  was  not  a  reality?  Just  so  I  dream 
of  my  boy,  WilUe."  Overcome  with  emotion,  he  dropt 
his  head  on  the  table  and  burst  into  tears.  One  likes 
to  think  that  the  boy  he  loved  so  well  was  waiting  to 


174  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

welcome  the  President  on  the  other  side  of  the  Great 
Divide. 

No  one  who  ever  rose  to  the  position  of  Chief  Magis- 
trate of  a  great  State  was  more  entirely  free  from  self- 
consciousness,  or  what  is  colloquially  termed  "side/^ 
than  Lincoln.  He  loved  to  be  considered  as  one  of  the 
plain  people  from  among  whom  he  had  sprung.  Of 
dignity  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word  he  had  none. 
He  was  hail-fellow-well-met  with  all,  and  always  pre- 
ferred to  be  addrest  as  ''Mr.  Lincoln"  rather  than  as 
"Mr.  President"  during  his  term  of  office.  His  tend- 
ency, especially  in  the  early  part  of  his  Ufe,  was  con- 
sistently to  underestimate  his  own  abihties,  and,  as  so 
many  people  will  always  take  a  man  at  his  own  valua- 
tion, this  doubtless  had  an  effect  detrimental  to  a  wide- 
spread recognition  of  his  actual  capacity  and  intel- 
lectual power. 

Another  and  most  striking  trait  in  the  character  of 
the  great  American  President  was  his  humanity.  I 
think  one  may  safely  say  that  no  man  who  was  respon- 
sible for  the  conduct  of  a  great  war,  since  the  world 
began,  was  ever  so  humane  by  nature  as  Lincoln.  The 
clemency  of  Julius  Caesar  to  his  enemies  when  they  fell 
into  his  power  became  proverbial,  but  JuHus  Caesar's 
clemency  was  not  comparable  with  Lincoln's.  His 
official  position  devolved  upon  the  President  the  duty 
of  countersigning  the  orders  for  the  shooting  of  de- 
serters from  the  army,  and  various  other  deHnquents, 
under  martial  law.    Lincoln  always  endeavored  to  find 


THE  END  175 

some  excuse  for  letting  the  offenders  off.  The  stories 
told  of  this  trait  in  his  character  are  absolutely  legion. 
On  one  occasion  a  Congressman  who  had  failed  to 
move  the  Secretary  for  War  to  grant  a  pardon,  went 
to  the  White  House  late  at  night  after  the  President 
had  retired,  and  forcing  his  way  into  his  bedroom, 
earnestly  pleaded  for  his  interference,  exclaiming 
tragically,  ''This  man  must  not  be  shot,  Mr.  Lincoln." 
''Well,"  said  the  President  coolly,  "I  do  not  beheve 
shooting  will  do  him  any  good,"  and  the  pardon  was 
granted.  This  reminds  us  by  contrast  of  the  story 
of  a  very  dour  Scotch  judge  to  whom  a  man  who  had 
been  condemned  for  murder  appealed  piteously  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  trial,  protesting  in  vain  that  he  was 
absolutely  innocent  of  the  crime  of  which  he  had  been 
found  guilty.  "Weel,  weel,"  said  the  Scottish  dig- 
nitary, waving  aside  the  whole  question  of  guilt  or 
innocence,  "ye'll  be  nane  the  waur  for  a  wee  bit 
hanging." 

On  another  occasion  an  old  man  came  to  Lincoln 
with  a  tragic  story.  His  son  had  been  convicted  of 
unpardonable  crimes  and  sentenced  to  death;  but  he 
was  an  only  son,  and  the  President  said  kindly:  "I 
am  sorry  I  can  do  nothing  for  you.  Listen  to  this 
telegram  I  received  from  General  Butler  yesterday: 
'President  Lincoln.  I  pray  you  not  to  interfere  with 
the  courts  martial  of  the  Army.  You  will  destroy  all 
disciphne  among  our  soldiers. — B.  F.  Butler.'"  Lin- 
coln watched  the  old  man's  grief  for  a  minute,  and  then 


176  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

exclaimed,  ''By  Jingo  1  Butler  or  no  Butler,  here 
goes!"  Writing  a  few  words,  he  handed  the  paper  to 
the  old  man,  which  read  as  follows:  "Job  Smith  is  not 
to  be  shot  until  further  orders  from  me. — Abraham 
Lincohi."  "Why,"  said  the  old  man  sadly,  "I  thought 
it  was  a  pardon.  You  may  order  him  to  be  shot  next 
week."  "My  old  friend,"  rephed  the  President,  "I 
see  you  are  not  very  well  acquainted  with  me.  If  your 
son  never  dies  till  orders  come  from  me  to  shoot  him, 
he  will  live  to  be  a  great  deal  older  than  Methuselah." 
It  is  small  wonder  that  Lincoln's  generals  felt  no  little 
anxiety  as  to  the  effect  his  humanitarian  doctrines 
might  exercise  upon  army  discipline. 

In  the  realm  of  diplomacy  Lincoln,  immediately  after 
his  arrival  at  the  White  House,  showed  himself  a  past 
master,  to  the  great  surprise  of  all  his  subordinates, 
who  wondered  how  it  was  that  a  man  who  had  had 
so  Uttle  natural  training  could  prove  so  adept  in  dealing 
with  comphcated  matters  of  administration  and  ne- 
gotiations with  foreign  Powers.     At  a  quite  early  date 
during  his  first  tenure  of  office  he  found  himself  face 
to  face  with  a  very  embarrassing  situation  in  respect 
of  the  relations  of  the  United  States  with  more  than 
one  European   country,   owing  to  the   claim   of  the 
Southern  Confederacy  to  be  recognized  as  a  nation. 
The  position  grew  more  difficult  still  later  on,  when  it 
became  the  generally  accepted  opinion  in  Europe  that 
the  South  would  be  able  to  enforce  its  claim  to  in- 
dependence.    On   28th   February,    1861,   in   the   last 


THE  END  177 

days  of  the  outgoiDg  administration,  Jeremiah  Black, 
Secretary  of  State,  had  issued  a  circular  instructing  the 
representatives  of  the  United  States  at  foreign  capitals 
that  the  Government  had  not  reKnquished  its  con- 
stitutional jurisdiction  anywhere  within  its  territory 
and  did  not  propose  to  do  so.  He  also  gave  instructions 
in  the  same  cu'cular  that  a  recognition  of  the  Confed- 
eracy must  not  be  allowed.  Upon  assuming  the  duties 
of  Secretary  of  State,  Seward  confirmed  these  instruc- 
tions, expressing  the  confidence  of  the  President  in  the 
speedy  suppression  of  the  rebellion.  The  answers  he 
received  from  the  European  Powers  were  cautious  and 
non-committal.  England  and  France  issued  a  proc- 
lamation of  neutraUty  which  conceded  to  the  Confed- 
erate States  the  privileges  of  a  belHgerent  Power. 
Seward,  in  reply  to  this,  drew  up  a  vehement  dispatch 
which  threatened  to  embroil  the  relations  of  England 
and  America.  Lincoln,  however,  had  instructed  his 
subordinates  on  no  account  to  send  off  important  dis- 
patches without  his  supervision,  and  on  the  dispatch 
being  submitted  to  him,  made  such  modifications  as 
completely  altered  the  tone  and  manner  of  the  com- 
munication without  detracting  from  the  firm  fine 
adopted.  He,  moreover,  left  it  to  the  American  repre- 
sentative, Charles  Francis  Adams,  to  use  his  discretion 
as  to  whether  he  should  read  the  whole  dispatch  to 
Lord  John  Russell,  or  convey  its  sense  to  him  in  what 
manner  he  thought  best.  Lord  Charnwood  observes: 
''Probably  his  few  pen  strokes  made  peaceful  relations 


178  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

easy  when  Seward^s  dispatch  would  have  made  them 
almost  impossible.  Certainly  a  study  of  this  document 
will  prove  both  his  strange  untutored  diplomatic  skill, 
and  the  general  soundness  of  his  views  on  foreign 
affairs.'' 

Further  trouble  arose  with  England  through  the  ac- 
tion of  a  captain  of  the  Northern  navy  who  overhauled 
The  Trent  and  carried  off  two  emissaries  who  were  being 
dispatched  to  England  and  France  on  behalf  of  the 
Confederate  Government,  subsequently  releasing  the 
vessel.  This  was  a  violation  of  recognized  international 
law,  and  the  British  Government  demanded  the  release 
of  the  prisoners.  Unfortunately,  Welles,  the  Naval 
Secretary,  approved  the  sea-captain's  action,  and  the 
House  of  Representatives  confirmed  this  approval. 
Lincoln  realized  that  the  prisoners  would  have  to  be 
given  up,  and  that  indeed  America  herself  had  adopted 
an  attitude  in  the  past  which  was  directly  at  variance 
with  her  present  position.  The  matter  aroused  heated 
debates  in  the  American  Cabinet,  and  exactly  what 
occurred  there  is  somewhat  obscure;  but  in  the  end  the 
only  decision  consistent  with  common  sense  was 
adopted,  and  Mason  and  Slidell,  the  two  emissaries 
concerned,  were  given  up. 

When  the  question  arose  of  the  recognition  of  the 
South  as  an  independent  Republic,  the  British  Govern- 
ment consistently  refused  to  act  in  this  sense,  though 
there  was  a  time  when  the  fortunes  of  the  North  were 
at  their  lowest  ebb,  when  the  Cabinet  hesitated  as  to 


THE  END  179 

what  was  the  wisest  course  to  pursue.  Disraeli,  how- 
ever, then  leader  of  the  Opposition,  who  was  consulted 
in  the  matter,  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  such 
recognition,  and  his  opinion  prevailed,  in  spite  of  the 
desire  of  Napoleon  III.  (who  had  his  own  schemes  afoot 
for  founding  an  empire  in  Mexico),  to  induce  England 
to  conmiit  herself.  British  sympathy  was,  -however,  in 
the  main  strongly  on  the  side  of  the  South,  with  certain 
notable  exceptions.  After  Lincoln's  proclamation  of 
the  Emancipation  of  the  Slaves  was  issued,  opinion  in 
many  quarters  veered  round  to  the  side  of  the  North, 
and  thenceforward  there  could  be  no  question  of  inter- 
vention. The  stroke  was  thus  one  which,  apart  from 
its  influence  on  the  internal  conduct  of  the  war,  was 
highly  favorable  to  the  North  in  ridding  it  of  embar- 
rassment in  its  foreign  relations. 

We  are,  most  of  us,  strange  mixtures  of  strength 
and  weakness,  but  in  the  case  of  no  great  man  were 
strong  and  weak  points  blended  more  remarkably  than 
in  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  himself  constantly  pleaded 
guilty  to  an  inabihty  to  say  *'No,"  and  exprest  thank- 
fulness on  this  account  that  he  had  not  been  born  a 
woman.  In  his  home  life  he  yielded  in  almost  every- 
thing. His  relations  with  women  before  his  marriage 
argued  a  certain  irresolution  and  lack  of  grit  and 
moral  fiber.  And  yet,  where  essential  principles  were 
at  stake,  there  was  no  one  in  the  whole  country  who 
was  so  immovable.  Once  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
that  a  certain  course  was  right,  and  that  it  was  his 


180  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

duty  to  pursue  it,  wild  horses  (as  the  colloquial  phrase 
goes)  would  not  drag  him  from  his  decision.  So  it  was 
that  in  the  matter  of  all  that  was  at  hazard  in  connec- 
tion with  the  maintenance  of  the  Union,  and  the 
attitude  to  be  adopted  towards  the  slavery  dispute, 
he  appeared  to  be  the  one  strong  man  in  a  party  where 
all  others  were  in  danger  of  compromising  on  the  most 
vital  principles  at  issue.  Lincoln  was  certainly  slow 
at  arriving  at  his  conclusions,  and  we  shall  probably 
be  right  in  attributing  his  irresolution  on  many  occa- 
sions to  his  inabihty  to  arrive  at  a  definite  decision  with 
sufficient  promptitude.  He  was  always  accustomed 
to  weigh  the  pros  and  cons  of  any  question  of  policy 
with  scrupulous  fairness,  and  this  led  at  times  to  a 
certain  inability  to  see  on  which  side  the  balance  of 
advantage  lay. 

Much  ink  has  been  wasted  in  a  discussion  of  what 
were  Lincoln's  precise  rehgious  opinions.  While  some 
biographers  have  held  him  up  as  a  noble  example  of 
the  orthodox  Christian,  others,  like  Herndon,  his 
partner,  have  bluntly  pronounced  him  an  ''infidel." 
The  truth  is,  of  course,  that  both  statements  are  equally 
false,  and,  indeed,  equally  absurd.  Of  theology,  prop- 
erly speaking,  he  took  no  account  whatever.  He 
frankly  avowed  his  belief  that  theological  disputation 
was  the  enemy  of  all  true  religion.  His  early  life  had 
brought  him  into  conflict  with  the  orthodox  parson  of 
the  day,  and  he  had  learned  to  gage  him  at  his  true 
value.     But  there  was  perhaps  no  one  in  the  whole  of 


THE  END  181 

the  United  States  to  whom  genuine  religion  was  more 
part  and  parcel  of  his  every-day  hfe.  As  President,  his 
deeply  religious  nature  came  out  again  and  again  in  his 
speeches,  and  I  think  it  may  be  safely  maintained  that 
during  the  last  century  there  has  been  one  man,  and 
one  only,  to  compare  with  him,  among  all  those  who 
have  been  called  upon  to  rule  the  destinies  of  great 
nations,  in  the  profound  depth  of  his  religious  convic- 
tions. Regarded  from  this  standpoint,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln and  William  Ewart  Gladstone  stand  apart.  And 
this,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  whereas  Gladstone  was 
an  enthusiastic  theologian,  Lincoln  had  no  theological 
interests.  It  is  doubtless  the  case  that  in  his  later  life 
Lincoln's  natural  religious  tendencies  became  accen- 
tuated. As  his  biographers,  Nicolay  and  Hay,  state 
in  their  life  of  the  President:  ^'The  pressure  of  the 
tremendous  problems  by  which  he  was  surrounded; 
the  awful  moral  significance  of  the  conflict  of  which  he 
was  the  chief  combatant;  the  overwhelming  sense  of 
personal  responsibility  which  never  left  him  for  an 
hour — all  contributed  to  produce  in  a  temperament 
naturally  serious  and  predisposed  to  a  spiritual  view 
of  hfe  and  conduct,  a  sense  of  reverent  acceptance  of 
the  guidance  of  a  superior  Power." 

When  the  New  School  Presbyterians  in  1863  em- 
bodied their  sentiments  of  loyalty  to  the  Union  in  a 
Memorial  to  the  President,  he  observed  in  the  course  of 
his  reply:  "From  the  beginning  I  saw  that  the  issues 
of  our  great  struggle  depended  upon  Divine  interposi- 


182  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

tion  and  favor."  Again,  on  another  occasion,  a  clergy- 
man from  Central  New  York  called  upon  him  on  behalf 
of  his  congregation,  and  assured  him  that  ''the  loyal 
people  of  the  North  are  sustaining  you  and  will  con- 
tinue to  do  so,"  adding,  "We  are  giving  you  all  that  we 
have — the  lives  of  our  sons,  as  well  as  our  confidence 
and  our  prayers.  You  must  know  that  no  pious  father 
or  mother  ever  kneels  in  prayer  these  days  without  ask- 
ing God  to  give  you  strength  and  wisdom."  It  is  nar- 
rated that  the  tears  filled  Lincoln's  eyes  as  he  thanked 
his  visitor  and  said,  "But  for  those  prayers  I  should  have 
faltered  and  perhaps  failed  long  ago.  Tell  every  father 
and  mother  you  know  to  keep  praying,  and  I  will  keep 
on  fighting,  for  I  am  sure  that  God  is  on  our  side." 

It  would  be  possible  to  continue  citing  such  instances 
indefinitely.  The  point,  however,  is  that  this  pro- 
foundly serious  and  rehgious  sense  was  representative 
of  Lincoln's  normal  attitude  towards  the  duties  he  was 
called  upon  to  discharge,  and  was  part  and  parcel  of 
that  high  sense  of  responsibility  which  carried  him 
through  unexampled  difficulties  and  disheartening  re- 
verses to  the  triumphant  issue  of  the  work  which  he 
had  to  perform.  He  did  everything,  in  short,  in  the 
time-honored  old  Miltonian  phrase,  "as  in  the  great 
Taskmaster's  eye." 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  a  man  who  had  so 
deep  a  realization  of  the  spiritual  side  of  life  should 
have  had  his  own  strange  experiences  of  the  psychic 
forces  ever  present  around  us.     Of  this  the  present 


THE  END  183 

narrative  has  already  given  several  instances.  His 
mind  was  an  open  one,  and  he  brought  all  experiences 
to  the  test  of  his  own  shrewd  common  sense.  On  one 
occasion  he  invited  a  celebrated  medium  to  display  his 
powers  at  the  White  House,  when  several  members  of 
the  Cabinet  were  present,  and  on  other  occasions  it  is 
recorded  of  him  that  he  consulted  a  clairvoyante  in 
times  of  poHtical  stress  and  difficulty. 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the  premonition 
which  constantly  haunted  him,  that  he  was  destined 
not  to  outUve  the  Civil  War.  He  alluded  to  this  con- 
viction on  many  occasions,  tho  the  thought  of  his 
impending  doom  seemed  to  have  left  him  in  the  last 
weeks  of  his  Kfe,  when  victory  was  clearly  imminent. 
The  strange  dream  which  he  had  on  the  night  before  his 
assassination  has  already  been  noted,  but  it  is  curious 
that  an  Englishwoman,  not  an  American,  dreamed  of 
the  tragedy  itself  within  a  few  hours  of  the  time  of  its 
occurrence.  On  the  morning  following  President  Lin- 
coln's death,  the  wife  of  John  Morrison  Davidson,  the 
well-known  leader-writer  for  the  Liberal  press,  had  a 
trance,  and  on  recovering  from  it  told  her  husband  that 
she  had  seen  a  man  shoot  at  Lincoln  in  some  theater 
or  opera-house,  and  rush  out  shouting  words  which 
she  was  unable  to  distinguish.  In  the  course  of  the 
afternoon  the  news  of  the  death  reached  London.  A 
somewhat  similar  incident  is  recorded  in  connection 
with  the  assassination  of  Mr.  Percival  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  but  in  this  case  the  warning  dream  pre- 


184  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

ceded  the  event  by  some  days.     It  may  be  mentioned 
that  Mrs.  Davidson  was  subject  to  trances. 

Of  the  position  that  Lincoln's  name  will  eventually 
occupy  on  the  scroll  of  fame,  historians  are  somewhat 
undecided.  Of  the  nobility  of  his  character  and  of  his 
transparent  sincerity  and  integrity  there  can  be  no 
possible  doubt,  and  his  tact  and  pohtical  sagacity 
were  unique;  but  as  regards  his  genius  and  ability  as 
a  statesman  there  is  still  room  for  two  opinions.  A 
man,  it  is  argued,  of  a  different  mold  and  of  a  more 
ruthless  and  sterner  nature  might  have  brought  the 
war  to  an  end  at  an  earlier  date.  It  is  scarcely  to  be 
doubted  that  Lincoln  erred  on  the  side  of  tolerance 
towards  both  his  incompetent  generals  and  his  recal- 
citrant Cabinet  Ministers.  His  patience,  indeed,  was 
almost  inexhaustible;  and  his  kindness  of  heart  proved 
more  than  once  a  source  of  weakness  to  him  in  his 
political  career.  Both  generals  and  Cabinet  Ministers 
took  advantage  of  this.  General  M'Clellan  was  in- 
subordinate to  the  point  of  insolence,  and  there  were 
those  in  his  Cabinet  who  openly  intrigued  against  him 
and  strove  to  undermine  his  influence,  confident  in  the 
leniency  of  the  President.  It  must  be  remembered,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  he  found  himself  in  the  position  of 
First  Magistrate  of  a  divided  nation,  without  practical 
political  experience,  and  as  the  representative  of  a  party 
which  had  but  recently  come  into  existence.  The  crisis 
in  which  he  found  the  country  limited  his  choice  of  Min- 
isters, and  those  who  were  obviously  indicated  as  entitled 


THE  END  185 

•to  portfolios  by  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  able  and 
brilliant  as  indeed  many  of  them  were,  were  hardly  men 
either  qualified  to  work  harmoniously  together  or  to 
deal  wisely  with  so  grave  an  emergency,  apart  from  the 
constant  control  and  guidance  of  their  Chief. 

All  writers  are  agreed  as  to  the  remarkable  effect 
produced  by  Lincoln's  personal  appearance — by  the 
originaHty  of  his  manner,  his  angular  features,  and  his 
long  limbs  hanging  loosely  in  his  ill-fitting  clothes,  and 
the  strange  ungainliness  of  his  figure.  He  stood  six 
feet  four  inches  in  his  socks,  and  was  not  a  little  proud 
of  his  gigantic  stature.  Men  called  him  ugly,  but  his 
ughness  was  of  an  impressive  kind.  In  commencing  to 
speak,  his  audience  was  struck  by  something  that 
almost  jarred  in  the  harshness  of  his  voice;  but  it 
inevitably  arrested  their  attention,  and  the  unpleasant 
impression  was  soon  lost,  owing  to  the  fascination 
and  homely  force  of  his  oratory.  His  humor  was  of 
the  broadest  kind,  and  his  stories,  reminiscent  of  the 
early  backwoodsman's  life,  at  times  caused  offense 
among  the  more  sober-minded  members  of  the  com- 
munity. This  humor  found  vent  on  the  most  trifling 
as  well  as  the  most  serious  occasions.  Here  is  one 
such  story  that  illustrates  the  simpHcity  of  his  habits. 
On  one  occasion  a  visitor  called  to  see  him  at  the  White 
House,  and  was  told  that  the  President  was  down-stairs. 
He  walked  down  to  the  basement,  and  found  Lincoln 
cleaning  his  boots.  "You  do  not  mean  to  say  that  you 
clean  your  own  boots,  Mr.  President!"  exclaimed  hie 


186  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

visitor  in  horror.  "Whose  boots  did  you  suppose  I 
was  cleaning?"  the  President  inquired  innocently. 

The  story  of  his  reply  to  the  temperance  deputation 
who  complained  of  General  Grant  because  he  drank 
so  much  whisky  is  well  known.  Could  his  informers 
not  let  him  know  the  name  of  the  special  brand  that 
Grant  drank,  as  in  that  case  he  would  send  a  consign- 
ment to  each  of  his  other  generals?  It  is  curious  to 
note  that  Lincoln,  himself  a  teetotaler  and  a  non- 
smoker,  was  frequently  pestered  by  temperance  cranks 
and  temperance  deputations;  one  of  these  deputations 
attributed  the  reverses  of  the  North  to  the  fact  that  the 
soldiers  drank  so  much  whisky.  This,  retorted  Lin- 
coln, was,  he  felt,  most  unfair,  as  he  had  it  on  the  best 
authority  that  the  Southern  troops  drank  more  whisky 
and  of  a  worse  quality  than  their  Northern  antagonists. 

The  Abolitionists  were  constantly  pressing  Lmcoln 
to  issue  his  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  before,  as  it 
seemed  to  him,  the  psychological  moment  for  such  a 
step  had  arrived.  Among  those  who  were  most  un- 
tiring in  their  importunity  in  this  direction  were  three 
Radical  members  of  the  party,  of  the  names  of  Sumner, 
Stevens,  and  Wilson.  Lincoln  complained  to  his  friend 
Senator  Henderson  that  wherever  he  went,  and  wher- 
ever he  turned,  they  were  on  his  trail.  Looking  out  of 
a  window  at  that  moment,  he  espied  them  in  the 
distance,  and  proceeded  to  tell  a  characteristic  story 
in  illustration  of  the  situation.  "The  only  schooling 
I  ever  had,  Henderson,"  he  remarked,  "was  in  a  log 


THE  END  187 

school-house,  where  reading-books  and  grammars  were 
unknown.  All  our  reading  was  done  from  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  we  stood  up  in  a  long  line  and  read  in  turn 
from  the  Bible.  On  one  occasion  the  chapter  was  that 
dealing  with  the  casting  of  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and 
Abednego  into  the  fiery  furnace.  A  little  boy  was 
set  on  to  read  for  whom  the  Biblical  names  proved 
altogether  too  tough  a  morsel.  He  stumbled  on  Shad- 
rach, floundered  on  Meshach,  and  went  all  to  pieces 
on  Abednego.  Instantly  the  hand  of  the  master  dealt 
him  a  cuff  on  the  side  of  the  head,  and  left  him  blubber- 
ing as  the  next  boy  took  up  the  reading.  He  finally 
subsided,  and  his  blunder  was  forgotten  by  the  others 
of  the  class  until  his  turn  came  round  again.  Then, 
like  a  thunderclap  out  of  a  clear  sky,  he  set  up  a  wail 
which  quite  alarmed  the  master,  who  inquired  with 
unwonted  gentleness,  'What's  the  matter  now?' 
Pointing  with  a  shaking  finger  at  a  verse  which  a  few 
moments  later  would  fall  to  him  to  read,  the  little  boy 
managed  to  quaver  the  answer:  'Look  there,  master, 
there  comes  them  same  damn  three  fellers  again.'" 
Then  Lincoln's  face  lighted  up  with  a  smile  such  as 
only  he  could  give,  and  he  beckoned  Senator  Henderson 
to  his  side,  silently  pointing  his  long  bony  finger  to 
three  men  who  were  just  then  crossing  Pennsylvania 
Avenue  towards  the  White  House.  They  were  Sum- 
ner, Wilson,  and  Thaddeus  Stevens.^ 

1  "Lincoln^s  Own  Stories."    Harper  &  Brothers. 


188  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

The  above  story  is  peculiarly  characteristic  of  Lin- 
coln's special  type  of  humor.  He  delighted  in  finding 
parallels  of  a  grotesque  kind,  and  was  never  so  happy 
as  when  introducing  an  apposite  illustration  for  the 
purpose  of  the  occasion  from  his  almost  inexhaustible 
fund  of  anecdotes.  Nothing  is  more  subtle  or  more 
difficult  to  analyze  than  humor.  Lincoln's  wit  found 
its  vent  in  a  form  of  comic  comparison  and  caricature 
which  was  part  and  parcel  of  his  unique  and  singularly 
original  mentaHty. 

In  some  sense  Lincoln  may  be  described  as  having 
been,  in  the  Latin  phrase,  Felix  opportunitate  mortis. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  the  South,  however,  this 
was  far  from  being  the  case.  John  Wilkes  Booth's 
mad  act  proved  indeed  to  be  "worse  than  a  crime,  a 
blunder."  For  his  successor  lacked  those  quaUties 
mth  which  Lincoln  was  so  conspicuously  endowed,  and 
which  were  so  calculated  to  heal  the  wounds  caused  by 
the  war.  Andrew  Johnson  was  the  last  man  fitted  by 
temperament  to  deal  diplomatically  and  prudently  with 
the  problem  with  which  he  found  himself  confronted 
on  Lincoln's  death,  and  none  had  more  reason  than 
the  champions  of  the  South  to  regret  the  tragedy  which 
caused  the  end  of  the  war  to  coincide  with  the  death 
of  the  great  protagonist  of  the  Union  and  of  the  cause 
of  Freedom. 

THE   END 


/ 


